These Wonderful Things

Garret marches around the room flicking his blocks, red and green. His favorite song is playing. "Horsey-horsey, don't you stop, listen to your hoofs go clickety clop..." His legs and feet raise in time to the music. I sit and watch him go. The song stops and he comes to me. "Bwock," he says showing me his red block. "Block, " I say back. And then, "What color is that, Garret?" He replies, "Gween." He has on his face a mischievous smile that tells me he is messing with me. He waits for my reaction. "Red man gud na!" I say in return, laughing. At this his eyes crinkle and a hearty laugh breaks out. We go on like this a few more times.

Morgan places his legs on my lap signaling me that he is ready for his morning massage. He gets the roller bottle of oil on the table and hands it to me. I rub it on my palms. He directs my hands to his nose and breathes in the scent of his favorite peppermint. As I massage his big toe, he tilts his head and looks at me. He smiles and murmurs what sounds like, "Maaa-maaah." "Yes, my love?" I say to him. He smiles at me and pulls me in for a tight embrace.

Garret will turn 13 years old a couple of months from now. Morgan just turned 10 years old. Everyday I marvel at the place we have arrived at. I remember every step of the journey we have taken to get to where we are. All the wonderful ones and all the not so wonderful ones. But all equally necessary to bring us to now. The road ahead is far from over. We are all works in progress-- My boys growing into who they are meant to be and me burgeoning from my many different elements and infirmities. And while it may seem I already have the answers for the past decade or more, I still ask the hard questions, " How shall we get by? How shall we overcome" Because so long as change is continuous, so the answers are ever evolving. 

Today as I sit and write, I smile as I remember last night when Garret and I laughed over and over at our exchange of "Gween bwock" and "That's red" and as I remember Morgan's way of looking at me more intently as he tilts his head and pulling me in for an embrace just because he wants to. My heart is full and at peace as these things transpire. Perhaps these wonderful things are  how we shall get by, how we shall overcome-- by our shared laughter and our acts of love. That even as the storms come, as they surely will, the laughter afterwards will be richer, and our ways of showing our love,  more meaningful.

Namaste. 

(Photos taken August 2013 at Visayas State University. Garret is 8 years old. Morgan is 5 years old.)