Birthday

Leaning over the sink, I was crying and making food for a celebration of the birth of my youngest daughter Frances, who is three today. The tears were just flowing freely on the wave of emotion that was pressing up and out from my chest and throat, instigated by a favorite song, while I cut through plump strawberries and Dave busily cooked up a storm all around me. The girls were in the next room enjoying the treat of a weekend movie, and I was overcome with joy just thinking about her birth and what a gift she is. Three years old and she is the funniest person I know. The moment that was coming back to me as I sliced fruit for the party that would start very shortly was the moment when I first held her, immediately after she left my body and entered the world. "Remember how beautiful she was?" I asked Dave, my face wet and smiling. "Yup" he answered, throwing sliced scallion onto a pizza he was designing. I fell into the vivid memory of her beginning. She was stunning. She was so full of being herself. The most amazing thing about watching children grow into themselves is the fact that they are who they are from the moment they are born. Life is just a process of growing into who we really are. Who we have always been. That's it.