No little girl could stop the world to wait for me.
NATALIE MERCHANT,FROM THE SONG
“ MY HOW YOU’VE GROWN”
AREPORTER ASKED ME why I had chosen a line from a Natalie Merchant song to use as an epigraph in The Christmas Box.
As appropriate as the words are to the book, I had an even more personal reason for its inclusion. One night I was playing with my daughters, Jenna and Allyson, when the song “My How You’ve Grown” came on the stereo. My daughters spontaneously began to dance, flinging their skinny little bodies about the room in rapturous motion. For the moment I was lost in the joy of that motion. As I listened to the words of the song, about the fleeting nature of childhood, and watched my little girls, I began to feel a little sentimental.
Allyson, who was only four at the time, suddenly asked, “Dad, what’s wrong? There’s water in your eyes.”
I assured her that nothing was wrong, but she didn’t believe me. She came over and sat in my lap. There was, after all, water in my eyes. I told her that listening to the song made me think about them growing up.
“Don’t you want us to grow up?” she asked.
“That’s a hard question,” I said. I told her that I wanted her to grow up and have all the experiences life held for her. But I never wanted her to go away. And I never wanted this moment to end. She thought about it for a moment, then, with the music still playing in the background, she said, “Dad, then let’s dance.”
She got it right, I thought. Dance. Dance for the joy and breath of childhood. Dance for all children, including that child who is still somewhere entombed beneath the responsibility and skepticism of adulthood. Embrace the moment before it escapes from our grasp. For the only promise of childhood, of any childhood, is that it will someday end. And in the end, we must ask ourselves what we have given our children to take its place. And is it enough?
Dear Richard,
Though I am only ten years old this story touched me deeply. Now I know a mother’s feelings when she says I love you. I have also learned why parents are so heartbroken when one of their children dies. Again, you touched me deeply.
Love,
Chelsea
P.S. I hope your family is touched too.
