Gratitude – Page 5 – Generous Wisdom

to be happy with

When my fourth baby is a few months old
I lie with my back on the floor,
fingers reaching one way, toes the other, and the hem of my shirt pulls away from the waistband of my pants.
My three-year-old daughter who kneels beside me asks,
“Why is your belly so wrinkly?”
My immediate shock and surprise fade, and I mentally leap into a readily available pit of despair. Then I offer her a cursory explanation of skin’s elasticity and the effects of multiple pregnancies,
and gravity.
And, as if she hasn’t listened to a word I’ve said,
exclaims,
“It’s Beautiful!”

Indeed.
That fourth little babe is now over a year old
and wouldn’t you know he blows the best raspberries on that wrinkly old skin there ever was.

Thank You for the Zebra

I hand my baby boy his sister’s tiny toy zebra when he walks, Frankenstein’s monster-like, toward me.

“Ahng-oo,” he said, unprompted, for the first time ever.

I pray my own gratitude pours out that way, unprompted, in whatever language I can muster, as if for the first time ever, not because etiquette requires me to do so, but because in my humility I am truly grateful.