The start of every day

There’s something to be said about waking up to a loved one’s smile.

When I just got married I started my day right when I opened my eyes and saw Ana smiling at me. It was, perhaps the best of many, many reasons why I decided to tie the knot and settled down.

Well, I wake up in the morning these days (when I am not rushing to court) to the smiles of my 5 month son. There’s just something about Joshua’s smile that is enough to start your day right. It’s about his eyebrows when he raises them as if asking me if I am awake; or the half shadow of a grin promising more; or the gurgling sounds he makes as he pivots around the bedspread. Or a little of all of the above. Whatever it is, the expression in Joshua’s face always shows that sense of wonder at the freshness of this world. After all, it is HIS world and he’s just starting to discover it….

Joshua still sleeps in his crib and so I guess moving over to the much wider bed is always a challenge and a riot for him: so much more space to move!

I am reminded of a passage from Stephen Benet’s, The Devil and Daniel Webster. Therein, his lead character, the indomitable barrister Daniel Webster, makes a closing argument about the good things in life- the very things that make life worth living. One of these, I recall Mr. Webster saying, “is the great adventure that is every day in life when you are a child.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if we adults never forgot this? From the look of Joshua’s smile, I know that every day to him is the start of a new adventure.