There is something about a new baby, the soft, untouched skin and impossibly small toes and that smell….that newborn smell. It kills me. They are all new and full of possibility, a blank slate for life and the sweetness and innocence that exists nowhere else. My best friend gave birth to her first born on Saturday, a little baby boy and I knew I was going to be super excited to go to the hospital and see him but had no idea how full my heart would feel when I saw his tiny face. So light in my arms, so calm and still except for the scrunched faces and half smiles while sleeping, he barely moved as I pushed his little hat aside to see his downy hair and unburied his toes from the blanket to hold his feet.
If there is a cure for sadness, I’m almost positive it lies in baby feet.
The room was just filled with this sense of quiet, peace, calm. And love. Sort of an unexplainable amount and kind of love, only hours after this new person came into the world and her mom and sister and husband sat around. And her face – exhausted and worn out but just filled with this glow of new life, a look I had never really seen on her before. It’s hard not to experience that and walk out of the room feeling this strange sense of hope about the world. A sense of heart fullness, a sense that there is little more that’s important in this life than that kind of love.
I went home and wrapped my arms around L and thought about the future, all the possibilities that lie ahead for us as well. In these times, through stress and chaos, life keeps handing me reminders that none of it matters, none of it compares to the love in our lives and those who bring it there. Everything else is just details, fuzz in the background, noise to distract.
Welcome to the world, little boy. We are so glad you are here.
*********************************************
I am a new day rising
I’m a brand new sky
To hang the stars upon tonight
It’s times like these you learn to live again
It’s times like these you give and give again
It’s times like these you learn to love again