On the occasion of your Seventh Birthday, I wish to note that this is the age of reason. This is something that was big for my mom and dad. I guess it's a Catholic teaching, that this is the year you understand right and wrong, the year where you begin to think about next year. Second Grade is the double-helix of sacraments, the big year that is bookended by First Reconciliation training in Fall and First Communion in Spring. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Right now, you are clear light. Searing and canny about your opinions. At school, you are rule-focused and adore the rituals--raising your hand. Staying on green. At soccer, you are all-team and all-hugs, looking to high-five each and everyone necessary, with your bay window-smile. And seeing you at ballet, I would swear there was cloud in your shoes!
This summer, we were listening to "That's What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. And you observed that the song was about Leah from Genesis. That Rachel was the beautiful one and that Leah wasn't. But that God thought that Leah really WAS the beautiful one. And that her beauty came from her inner humility and maybe even her humiliation of being the object of such a deception. I think about you listening to "Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you. . . " and thinking about God saying this to this seemingly lesser sister. I got such a theological-thrill from this. Girl, where did you come from? Listening to pop songs and deriving theological, inner-beauty-affirming, Biblical truth, what more could a mother ask for?
I can't believe it was seven years ago that you came into our life. The weather was just like this, Autumn with its blazing leaves and weird warmth. Shessy, Adri and the midwives running up our steps in the night to attend me, to meet you. Your brothers wide-eyed in soft jammies. This rosy-pink girl burst on the scene. It was you, oh my gosh, Clara, it was you. Joy doesn't begin to cover how happy.
