Six: Dancing Backwards
1. There are these few drops at the very top of a wave, just as it crests, that seem to want to leap straight into the sky, shining. I love those drops.
2. Yesterday we used our new rooftop space for the very first time. Outside, above everything, in the shade, surrounded by the rustle of coconut trees. Beautiful.
3. Leafy would like us all to know that crabs like to dance, and that they dance backwards. Also, that they scare him, but not really, because the small ones don’t bite, but the big ones do, but a small one ate a part of his foot once.
And I would like you to know that although it is tiring to carry this great big boy down the beach just because he is afraid (but not afraid, not really) of the crabs that scuttle into their holes as we pass… I just love his soft face nuzzled into my neck.
4. The bread man waits for me now, honking his horn on his bicycle, instead of whizzing past like he used to. I run out and ask for das pao (ten rolls) and then I wave and say thank you, and he nods gravely and rides off until tomorrow afternoon, when he will wait for me again.
5. I kissed YaYa’s cheeks and her forehead before she fell asleep, and she kissed me back, even after an evening of her high emotions, of crying, of being unreasonable, of wailing loudly and inconsolably about things that don’t seem to make any sense. I kissed her and she kissed me back, and there was grace for both of us.
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“her high emotions, of crying, of being unreasonable, of wailing loudly and inconsolably about things that don’t seem to make any sense.” This describes my Poppy so well on some days too… I’m so glad there is grace.
This too describes my daughter from a very young age to pretween?? My daughter who we called Kiwi as a toddler would stand and cry and cry, unable to tell you what was wrong. When calm she was the most articulate child. She read and wrote at a young age–but oh my!! There were these moments–time must have frozen over and her expression was just an exasperation of soulful tears.
Because I promised that Leafy would get his own limerick:
As they walked on the sand Leafy said “I feel muddled,”
He said “Crab dancing’s fun, but I hate feeling scuttled.”
“Sometimes they do bite,
Or maybe not quite.”
Mama said “How I love to be cuddled.”
i love this post. love it!
That, my dear, was completely satisfying. And Eleanor… wonderful.
Love the way you described Leafy and Yaya in this one. As my 2 yo gets bigger and heavier- I think to myself, “You’re getting too big to carry.”… but oh how I love the cheek-to-cheek-arms-around-the-neck feeling that I get when I do.
I like #5 best. Sarah and I had a day/night like this a few days ago. I like the fact that it’s all ok at the end of the day.
“I kissed her and she kissed me back, and there was grace for both of us.”
Your writing is so simple, beautiful, spectacular. Thank you.
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