reprieve

I spend a lot of time (this is Philip again, Mimi is in rehearsal for a couple more weeks -- directing Our Town, with adults! -- and will probably drop in here eventually when her show is up and running) ... I'll start over ...

I spend a lot of time running down the litany of worries that I have when it comes to raising the kiddo, so sometimes I am caught off guard when I realize we've spent 45 minutes hanging out, just reading books (and, okay, taking a pictures of her reading books). No fuss. No crying. No getting into trouble. Just lounging around and reading books, like we don't have anyplace else to be.


She'd flip through a couple, then bring me one and crawl into my lap and I'd read to her. Then she'd go flip through a couple more before bringing me another one to read. Kid, in lap, with book is heaven.

Kiddo was a peach tonight (Mimi started calling her "a peach" when she's good and I find it impossibly cute). So I'm going to take a break from worry until tomorrow. Tonight was a tiny little bit of magic, and I want to hang onto it.

I stop,

gather wet wood,

cut dry shavings, and for her,

whose face

I held in my hands

a few hours, whom I gave back

only to keep holding the space where she was,

I light

a small fire in the rain.

-from "Under the Maud Moon" by Galway Kinnell