The Light Hearts Of Children

Glad to hear Liz is back after a week of mourning the sudden death of her sister's husband -- husband of only six months. Made me think of the time after my mom died and my son was very young, only about 2 and 1/2 and how there was little time to dwell on sadness, but instead toddler needs to attend to.

The babies seem so untouched and during mourning, they can seem almost unseemly in their obliviousness. They cry, they fuss, they giggle, they gurgle along and you resist their light heartedness at first. You can resent how carefree they seem as you suffer. You marvel at their disconnect from time, place, past, future, life, death.

But in the end, I remember being thankful that they restart this weighty loadstone of life rolling again. A meal must be made. A diaper must be changed. A child must be dressed and taken out to the park for a walk. They wear you out and bring solid sleep that others in the same sad house have trouble finding. Before you notice, something sweet and funny they do has you laughing. They levitate your heavy heart with magic little hands these babes. And we think we're wise and they are naive, as to how to live in this world.