Dear Maria,
When a little one, young enough and small enough to still be easily cradled in an arm, grasps my finger with two or three such tiny fingers, I cannot help but sometimes begin to wonder what the future will hold for one so new to the world. Even as I have freely admitted that I can hardly imagine next week.
To have become so short-sighted with 60 years behind me is humbling. I am surprised often in a moment—just now a breeze stirs that comes from the pines that rise above my driveway and then settles into my young elms.
Seems a wonder to me that anyone talks of the future, and surely we do with varying degrees of certitude. Guess that forward-thinking leads to getting things done, and I do dutifully add lunches with friends and doctor appointments to my Google calendar.
I find each day to be an unfolding.
Of course, with all my nieces and nephews—and now two generations of them—easy to get caught up in the future-dreaming thing. Which one will become what, who will become a greater surprise to those of us who knew them when they could be cradled. And to think of the millions of children across the globe that are cradled at any moment.
Why, what will become of any living thing newly born or released into this world? I think Jane Franklin—yes, Ben’s sister—gets to the heart of this matter much better than I do. She writes, “The most Insignificant creature on Earth may be made some use of in the scale of Beings.”
We don’t know how or when, now do we? But, that notion is the beauty of the unknown. Then, by extension, my unknowing.
Always liked that hand-in-hand thing. Not nearly enough of it in this world.
Be well. With you and for you, srk
Only with Jackson did I have a strong feeling about his future the day he was born. I looked at the tiny little red flaming haired boy with the gentle brown eyes and knew this would be a godly man one day. There was something different about him. I saw this unfold as he brought new life into a lonely older man's life as a small baby and toddler. He always has the look of wisdom on his face.
ReplyDeleteThomas, on the other hand, is a continual surprise. The future of his development has been an unknown from infancy, and he has exceeded our initial expectations. He is a new creature day by day and a constant mystery.