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| Heat and desolation may have played into Tess's nightmare. |
Tess woke up crying last night. It doesn’t happen often, so I came to her quickly to see what she needed. I think it was a nightmare because she immediately calmed down when I picked her up. I sat with her curled in my lap for a few minutes and then moved to put her back in bed until she moaned, “Hug!” I smiled and sat back down with her for a while. Soon I rose again to put her in bed and she cried, “Stay, Mommy!” So I did for a little while longer.
Although nighttime soothings like this are not easy, nor are they even done in full consciousness, there’s something glorious in them—something sweet that you don’t want to abandon quickly. It’s maybe the wonder of being what a child wants and needs most in the night. It’s a moment whose fleetingness makes it all the more splendid. It’s the aching goodness of being Mommy—of having a name that is among the dearest your child’s mouth ever forms.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the blessed mothers out there.