The Weight of Words

I once heard a folktale that said the reason birds can fly is because they lack the power of speech – that the weight of words would hold them down and it's that same weight that fastens our feet to the ground. I thought of that story today when Linda said, “I realized that I shouldn’t miss the way Violet was, because if she stayed like that, then we wouldn’t have this,” meaning the beautiful nine-week sitting in her arms. And it’s true. I’ve had so many people tell me that every stepping stone of a child’s growth is hard to abandon to time, but the next one brings with it some enthralling leap forward in personality or movement or sound. Right now, only the barest hint of a personality rests on Violet – in the way she looks at us, how she reacts to our travels around her and with her – and her sounds are limited to only a few vowels. She is so easy to love – and our relationship is simple. On the one hand, I look forward to the day when her lips move with the knowledge of speech, even the rudimentary sort, and we can begin building a deeper understanding of each other, but I’ll miss this, too.
 

68 days old