It is 5:30am
Mabel: ‘Are you tired, Mama? Be happy! Are you tired? Stop it! Oh, it’s wobbly on you! I am your blanket! Look at me! I am licking you! Don’t say yes! Don’t say no! I’ve turned you into a frog!’
It is 5:30am
Mabel: ‘Are you tired, Mama? Be happy! Are you tired? Stop it! Oh, it’s wobbly on you! I am your blanket! Look at me! I am licking you! Don’t say yes! Don’t say no! I’ve turned you into a frog!’
One day you will be grown.
You’ll go on adventures. You’ll get on planes with plans or with no plan at all; both are good. You’ll count down the days to your departure, crossing off the calendar, or one morning you will just get up and go.
You’ll fill your heart and senses with stories. You’ll fall in love, with places and books and people and ideas.
You will have a great big life. It’s how these things work.
But when you were 3, and you caught Chickenpox off your sister, and you were so good about it, really; the only soothe you did insist on, was to sleep in my bed at night. You are there beside me now.
So you should know, no matter how far you go, or how hard things can seem sometimes, I am always there. On your side. Right there, with you.
We are lying on my bed, talking about what we will do today, when she up and grabs me by the cheeks.
Mabel: ‘Mama, I love your face!’
And with that, she made me beautiful forever.