last evening I met a baby man- wide eyed, looking up from a young momma’s arms. (She looks 2 years older than him. I cannot resist the urge to carry him. Who says you must resist a good urge? He is 6 months old. Fatigue outlines the smile his momma gives me. The child has a hurtful unformed leg. His little heart beats hard in my shoulder: I’m holding a humanbeing born for beautiful purpose).
Across the lobby, both my girls stare in horror at me: “…so d’you really need another kid, ma?”
I ask the girls to pray for him: the miracle is they don’t hesitate to. In this hospital lobby, just a few days ago, we’ve seen another miracle. Another ‘going home’ with my husband, another celebration of good health. Shadows will linger, humans are prone to doubts. (We are like that: fragile babies of many worlds we cannot trip yet, on spirit feet yet unformed). When we pray, we trip territories. We touch the Thing that makes us love, fear, doubt… We are inter species – ial: more than flesh and 206 bones. We are not just shadows in the valley of uh-uh. We hurt, we die, we laugh, cry.
The Lil boy understands all this better than we, as we lean hard on the Arm that steadies the leaning. Lil man’s young mother stands up from where she sat with large bag and water bottle. I may never meet that duo again but what a privilege to hear each other’s heart beat in a lobby between here and the eternal.
watermelon in our Summer unfolding
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