Tuesday, November 19, 2013

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

I'm ever mindful of the fleeting moments that make up my days. There are hours that I think might never end (like the three hour play date I hosted yesterday). But most days roll quickly one into another until before I know it the school year is half over and Ainsley's that much closer to Kindergarten. I can hardly believe it's true until I see the calendar before me. Much as I don't like the swiftness of the hourglass sands, I do love that it makes me ever mindful of the little things.

I know they are what I'll miss most when the season with the littles has passed me by. Today offered me the perfect chance to savor such moments in the routine loveliness that is mothering little girls. They had their check ups at the dentist this afternoon. It's hardly a cause for celebration but the girls actually love going since the dentist is a beautiful person both within and to look at. She always remembers us like we're friends. I know the more likely truth is that my girls have teeth she remembers. Not your run of the mill chicklets. Emerson has a weird jaw click that seems to alarm the dear dentist at each visit and Ainsley's teeth are so tightly aligned and pressed together that there is ever a tooth she is "watching". We can scarcely get the floss between it and the little pearls that bookend it on either side. In any case...today was our day to visit our dear friend Dr. Dentist.

Ainsley lay back on the exam chair and slipped her feet out of her flip flops. Might as well get comfy since we're all old friends. I sat at the end of the room and watched as her tiny tanned feet flexed with each little tickle of the polish was applied to her teeth. Little feet that have walked on the soil of at least nine states that I can think of and probably more that I can't readily recall in her short tenure on earth. My mind wandered to the next steps they will take and where they will be. Before looking too far down the road I just enjoyed the moment of her smallness. I just looked at her tiny body that took up only half the length of the chair. At her little dimpled knuckles on hands that love to pick up ladybugs and flowers and roly-polies.

When it was Emerson's turn to lie down, she took up nearly the whole of the chair. Her lankly legs clad in jeans with pockets full of notes to friends and treasures collected at recess. She looked so grown up lying there with the willowy frame of a tween. But I loved noting her youthful reticence and the way she quietly answers the dentist's questions about her favorite Thanksgiving foods. It reminds me quickly that she may look older but she is just a girl of eight years. I love how she smiles so wide and deep when the dentist (our old friend) makes a funny about the importance of mashed potatoes. And I love it. I love the simplicity of the sacred moment of motherhood. How I get to be the one to look after them at their appointments. How blessed I am that the appointments we've gone to together in all manner of dental and medical offices have all - every single one been routine. How there's nothing little at all about this particular blessing or moment.