Our morning started off right. Taking our time through breakfast and back to back episodes of Word World. The little smile that resides on my face as Little Chicken races from the TV stand, over to me, just to share the delicious beauty of strawberries. Her cheeks, chin and neck are stained proudly, promoting her enjoyment. Kindness resides in her. We are learning about sharing and her progress in this new territory is evident. There is hope. She is beginning to mutter sweet little Thank You's when she is handed something.
Outside is cold and wet and breezy, not my kind of day at all. This weather is tiring and makes me crave naps and Chinese food. Movies. Heavy blankets. Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens and Iron and Wine. There is much that needs to be done, besides the normal clean up, that is. I'm excited and waiting for the chance to fold freshly laundered clothing, tucking it into our big suitcase, rallying up the troops, and heading out. It's a much needed vacation we've planned and have been waiting for since January. We are thrilled to spend time with friends whose life seemingly parallels our own.
But until then, we'll bake cookies, bringing the sweet scent of warm sugar into our tiny apartment. We'll camp out on blankets with books and snacks. We'll craft up flowers and blooms to hang from our front window. We'll wait for that face. That face that comes upon my little sweetness as she lays there, propped up with fluffy pillows. Snuggling. Watching the trees dance with the wind. Feeling the cold rush of breeze as it races in through a cracked bedroom window.
I'll lay and wait for the slowing intensity of her breath. The way her warm little cheek rests on my chest.
The way we drift off into a land of uninterrupted dreams. We'll take our time, soaring through skies, running through plains, meeting new faces. Finding love and seeking peace, indulging in the beauty of long afternoon naps.
Sometimes, this is the kind of beauty I crave. The beauty of simplicity, the little things in my life that mean more to me than cleaning, packing, organizing. Sometimes it's little things, like basking in the richness of long naps, snuggled up with Lola, buried under a mountain of blankets, that up the value of my already priceless life. These days offer opportunities to realize that, even if nothing gets done, it's okay.
