Elephant Walking

It was Birthday Weekend and I was swept off my feet by the Birthday Girls and the Birthday Boyfriend.  I was good and stinky after a week of dump runs, chicken coop duty, and puppy rehab for Mercy so I happily welcomed their arrival.  We decided to celebrate the birthdays at the Elephant Walk, a wonderful Cambodian-French restaurant in Waltham where we all passed around our plates and forks, and shared some delicious and exotic food. 

I have to say this next part.  I was right there on the side walk with them.  I laughed out loud with them, and followed them, and hugged each of them as we sashayed our way down the Waltham sidewalks.  At the same time, a part of me was also someplace twenty-something years ago--waiting, watching, pacing, breathing, wondering, and waiting some more... 

I remember my curiosities, my fears, my anticipation.  Who will they be?  Where will they travel? What will their faces say? I knew that these three daughters would be a source of great joy. I knew that for sure.  The rest was such a mystery. And as I was following them down the sidewalk towards the Elephant Walk, I suddenly stepped back for a few minutes to really look.  There they are--there they are. Standing on the sidewalk I breathed through gentle ripples of quiet reverence--today I know who they are, and where they travel, and what their faces say to the world.   

What I could not have known twenty-something years ago, was just how enormous this joy would be.