Piper Finn Willow

three (3).

Isn’t it funny

how all of a family’s history

can meet

right in the face

of a three-year-old?


On our long drive recently Kevin and I looked at Piper’s face in the rearview mirror and verbally dissected her petite features.

A Norton nose.

My mom’s jawline.

It’s all right there.

Aunt Vonnie.

Uncle Tommy.

In my little Willow.


That wee face,

full of so many faces she will never even know.

All of the people whose blood flows through hers.

All of the people who have had a hand in making her –

both structure and soul.

A whole of so many pieces.

An end to something started so long ago.

A continuation of something

centuries in the making.

A beginning of a new story

with endings we cannot even imagine.

How will you grow, little girl who was yesterday two but is today three?

What faces will we see when we look at yours?

Just three tiny little fast-as-lightning years of your story have begun.

Oh.

I hold my breath

and wait with joy

to see

how your face forms,

how your story shapes itself,

how you continue to pull out pieces of my heart

and stitch them back together in a new pattern.

Happy Third Birthday Piper Finnian Willow Lacey.

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