Some Girls Prefer Carnations: Beauty

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Beauty

She confidently pedals her trike in front of me, her robin's breast red hair streaming behind her. This is the first season that she's had the agility to ride it without assistance. Her pride is as fresh as the day. Her biggness is betrayed, however, by a corner of her blankie poking out of the rear trike compartment, dragging on the sidewalk in her wake. She will always be my baby.

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She is enveloped in my arms, sealed in by her blankie. She walked relative miles of sidewalks this morning, experiencing spring for the first time on her own two legs. Now she wants to rest with her mom for a few moments before busying herself with the next task. As we cuddle, her lips undulate against her blankie's fringe. I close my eyes and lean to kiss her forehead, breathing her scent of sweat, dirt, and syrup. She will always be my baby.

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Winter has lost its grip on our neighborhood, and I wear no head covering as I walk about the neighborhood. I can feel the sun on my scalp, coaxing growth from my hair as if it were a plot of daffodils. The breeze tickles my follicles. I feel better than I've felt in months, and for the first time feel that everything might actually be okay.

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7 comments:

HeidiApril 10, 2011 at 2:41 PM
Ah, to share in your joy of recovery. You bring tears to my eyes, for you will always be My baby. I am so proud of your strength and beauty. This is the time of renewal and I have watched as that hair came in for the first time. Yes YOU will always be my baby.
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MarthaApril 10, 2011 at 10:02 PM
smile
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neysa gApril 10, 2011 at 10:56 PM
beautiful beautiful.
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AnonymousApril 11, 2011 at 12:41 PM
Spring Always Comes. :)

B.
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DadApril 11, 2011 at 10:24 PM
You will always be my baby too. Unfortunately I have the dreaded memory of carrying you on my shoulders from the swimming pool back to our apartment. You were 9 months old...and you peed on me.

Yes, I spazzed out. It was warm.
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HeidiApril 12, 2011 at 9:25 PM
Ah Russ that was hilarious.
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Rad ScientistApril 20, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Awwwwwwww. Happy spring.
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Books I've read recently

TRUTH AND BEAUTY by Ann Patchett "'Grief isn't something to "be gotten through." It has no life of its own like that, it's just plain and simply there.'" and "History is strangely incomprehensible when you're standing in the middle of it."
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IN THE COMPANY OF CHEERFUL LADIES: No. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY NOVEL #6 by Alexander McCall Smith
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THE LACUNA by Barbara Kingsolver "'Soli, let me tell you. The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don't know.'"
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE by Lucy Grealy "Sooner or later we all have to learn the words with which to name our own private losses..." and "Part of the job of being human is to consistently underestimate our effect on other people..." and "Sometimes the briefest moments capture us, force us to take them in, and demand that we live the rest of our lives in reference to them."
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sarah Gruen "Age is a terrible thief. Just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back. It makes you ache and muddies your head and silently spreads cancer throughout your spouse."
THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett "'I have decided not to die.'" and "Oh, I just break down then. It's like two years a doing and trying and hoping all come out at once."
THE TENNIS PARTNER by Abraham Verghese "Would that I had the chance in my sons' lifetime and my own to one day explain to them all the forces that moved me."
THE BLUEST EYE by Toni Morrison "And then the tears rushed down his cheeks, to make a bouquet under his chin."
REMARKABLE CREATURES by Tracy Chevalier "My life led up to that moment, then led away again, like the tide making its highest mark on the beach and then retreating."
RAMONA QUIMBY, AGE 8 by Beverly Cleary "Mrs. Quimby smiled and said, 'I can tell you're beginning to get well when you act like a wounded tiger.'"
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway "You see, Mr. Barnes, it is because I have lived so very much that now I can enjoy everything so well."
THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN by Kate Morton "The happiest folk are those that are busy, for their minds are starved of time to seek out woe." And, speaking of hospitals: "An irony that a place relying so heavily on routine should operate so resolutely outside time's usual rhythms."
THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins "Of course, the odds have not been very dependable of late."
THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot "That cancer was a terrible thing."
THE THIEF OF ALWAYS by Clive Barker "Was there some way...to take back the stolen years, and live them here, with the people who loved him, and whom he loved dearly in return?"
CUTTING FOR STONE by Abraham Verghese "The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not." Best book I've read in a year

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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Beauty

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