Dolph Park on a Sad Day in the Fall

Our friends Sue and Mark were visiting for the weekend, and Maria and Joe were crazy-excited about taking three-year-old Brendan on a "kid hike." So we packed into the station wagon — four adults, three kids, and the Dingo — and headed to the nature trails at Dolph Park.

Sue and Mark have made it a tradition to come up each fall from that otherworldly region known as The South, and their visit is usually punctuated with a lot of cooking and eating, uncontrolled laughter, and fun excursions to places like apple orchards and cider mills. This time, though, their visit was laced with sadness, as only a week prior they had lost their two-year-old niece, Emily. She died in her sleep — a tragic, unforeseen, inexplicable death. Needless to say, this event cast a sad heaviness on our weekend together.

The death of this child — though I had never even met her — caused me to look at Joe and Maria completely differently. Instead of allowing the mundane stress of the daily grind to cloud my vision, I saw my own two little beasts for what they truly are: beautiful, amazing gifts with whom I am privileged to share this life. Needless to say, this weekend I found myself yelling less and hugging more. Jay and I both drank in their silliness and playfulness. Instead of rushing Maria along the trail at Dolph Park, we watched with delight as she recorded in a notebook all the little details about our hike and the things we saw.

And we didn't care a bit that Joe's clothes and hair became infused with dirt when he lay down in the middle of the leaf-covered trail, swept his arms and legs back and forth wildly, and bellowed "I'm making a leaf angel, mama!" (Look carefully at the photo of him here and you'll see his angel.) I wish I could bottle this feeling of thankfulness, because there are just no guarantees regarding how long we get to enjoy these sweet gifts.

I know Mark and Sue were feeling the same, only more so, because for them, Emily's death obviously hit much closer to home. I know their hearts will ache over this loss for a long, long time. But in the meantime, they are loving and appreciating their own little guy (evidence below!) and doing it with gusto.