It's a Small World After All

A recent story about Phoenix I wanted to write about somewhere (why not here?): It was a week or so after Hurricane Katrina hit and I was sitting on the couch one morning watching the news about all of the horrible things that were happening to the people who were in it's path. I was crying, feeling so badly for them and wishing I could do more to help. Phoenix walked up in front of me and asked me, "Why you crying, Mommy? Mommy okay?" She was very concerned, and I told her that there were lots of people with owies and Mommy was sad for them and didn't know what to do. This was only a few days after we had returned home from California, where we had gone to Disneyland. So she said to me, "I sing to you, Mommy." Then she sang to me, word for word, "It's a Small World". We had been singing it every night together since we had returned to Florida. It was such a perfect song just then. Those words articulated by the mouth of a two year old - and she sang each note with such feeling, even though she couldn't have understood most of what she was singing - I wished that the whole world could hear her just then. Of course, she made me cry more, but they were tears through a smile this time and my heart felt like it would burst from the love that I felt for her. She was such a little angel. I will never forget that. It was magic. But that wasn't even enough for her, she decided. She suddenly ran off, and I didn't know where to, until she returned with Ben, holding him by the hand. Ben said she had gone into his office, told him that Mommy was sad, and pulled him out of his chair. When she brought him to me, she told him that Mommy needed a hug. So we hugged each other, all together. In that embrace, I felt like I was the luckiest person who had ever lived. I wanted to breathe that moment in and hold it forever. I whispered to God, "Thank you." It was a gift - our piece of heaven. And now I have shared it with you...