On, In, and Around Mondays: Walking Me Back
We are on the couch, and she is reading Clarice Bean to me.
It's been a while since we sat so close. Is it because she's the younger child? Does that put her last in line? Sometimes I think it does.
Today her sister is not here, and now we sit, and she reads. Bit by bit, she moves closer. Her elbow is in my side. Now it's her back against me. Her head rests on my shoulder.
She's a wiggler, so the position keeps shifting. Now her legs are on my shins. Now she's walking me with her feet as if I'm a landscape.
I breathe her in, and my body feels strangely whole. I remember, suddenly, when I was her world. When, as an infant, she'd nurse and walk her feet up my torso, up to my shoulder, up to my neck, then back down. I was her river, her sky, her land.
Just for this moment, it is like nothing at all will ever happen again. Nothing but this walking. The earth, surely, has stopped its spinning. Or I have simply stopped mine.
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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.
If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)
This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...
Labels: family stories, On in and Around Mondays
posted by L.L. Barkat at 11:17 AM
12 Comments:
Oh, yes! My column this month was about a similar moment with my daughter, my youngest. Also wiggly. So good to stop spinning for a moment.
Bless you both.
*sigh*. I remember when I was the monkey bars for my boys too. Now one of them is taller than I! Holding on to these moments too...
Lovely. And true. Thank you.
When it's walking into the heart, the world does spin in a different way.
I'm afraid I sometimes forget that I am a child's river, sky and land. Thanks for "walking me back," too.
(Love that photo.)
nice...loved that moment when you were taking her in, the feel the smell...love those moments...
simply beautiful
“I was her river, her sky, her land." Lovely. How quickly they grow!
Ironically, I didn't notice the links when I posted my link, "Perspective," which also has a bird theme.
My grandgirl and I are having a snake discussion right now. I remember my son screaming and running into my arms at the sight of a snake. Little legs around my waist, arms choking me, me being brave. Now I could jump into his. Sigh.
Small moments sometimes hold the greatest treasures.
I just love this, love that you two could share that time together.
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