The Gifts of Community

Tonight Ben and Angela went on a date and I put Jacob to bed. I don't know if it is just are Western obsession with cleanliness, but there is just something new. . . lovely. . .magical about a immediately-post-bath-tot. Watching lashes flutter, his wiggles subside, his breaths deepened and sleep overcome him made me very cognizant of the deep love that I have for him. I felt a similar warm love for Yana, seeing her yesterday and remembering feeding her late at night through the tube in her nose. I deeply cherish that I was there to hear Jacob's borning cry and those times of late night anxiety with Yana. Being able to share in the treasuring of these little ones, in the wonder of their natality, in the goodness of their curiosity and strivings is a profound gift. I am left with a deep sense of the kind of communitas which suffers children, disrupts the monopoly of kin altruism, and shares deeply. Of course if that little rapscallion wakes up before Angela and Ben come up and disturb my moments of contemplation on community I am going to be really annoyed. But, also very glad that I recorded this joy for my later memory.