The tip of a pinky finger resting upon my toddler’s navel
This #thankyouthursday, I am grateful for the tip of a pinky finger resting upon my toddler’s navel.
Next week he’ll officially be two-and-a-half. He doesn’t do a lot of pausing. But he is still when he sleeps, and he is often sleeping next to me.
Last night, just as he was drifting off, he pulled my arm around him in such a way that the tip of one of my pinky fingers was resting on the indentation of his navel.
I was fully present in that moment, and it occurred to me that the spot of flesh my finger was grazing had once been connected to my placenta, which had been inside my body. And the small human now breathing slowly beside me had been inside my body, too.
My kid will never be inside my body again. The umbilical cord is long gone. And if I do my job well, he’ll keep moving farther away from me.
But I believe our connection can always be strong, if unseen. And I am grateful for the tip of a pinky finger resting upon my toddler’s navel last night, for reminding me.
Love > fear,
Christina
p.s. I am also grateful for free and fair elections. I almost considered not voting on Tuesday because there was only one name on my ballot and the race was not supposed to be a close one. But then I remembered that for me, voting is all about the principle of the thing: We can and so we must. And so I did, and I’m glad.
Plus, what if it had been a close race after all? We should know by now that polls aren’t to be trusted. And so we must continue to show up.