Week 28.
Do you remember Tolstoy's line in Anna Karenina?
"...the children themselves were even now repaying her in small joys for her sufferings. Those joys were so small that they passed unnoticed, like gold in sand, and at bad moments she could see nothing but the pain, nothing but sand; but there were good moments too when she saw nothing but joy, nothing but gold." (page 245)
I thought of it so many times this week as my children played in the sands of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. This week I am so grateful for all the gold and all the sand, and the moments of pure joy I enjoyed with my children on the shores of the Great Lakes. I love being at the beach with them. Hours of abandon slip by as they play in the water, build in the sand, lay on their towels. I love rubbing their round bodies with sunscreen, wrapping their cold, wet limbs into their towels, watching their lips chap and their cheeks turn red.
The greatest blessing of my week came as the sun was setting on Lake Michigan on Saturday night and my children heedlessly pelted through the waves. Their bodies and the waves were the same golden color, reflecting the sun and my joy. I could see nothing but gold. As the sun sunk below the horizon, I held Ethan on my lap and called my other three to come in. I wrapped them in towels and felt their chests heaving and their hearts pounding madly, as I rubbed my hands up and down their arms to warm them. We ran for the car together. Me and my four children. Up the sand drifts, through the shoreline grasses. They stripped off their suits, the sand clinging to their goose-pimpled bodies, and grinned at me as I handed them pajamas from the back of the car. As I turned on the heater and pulled onto the darkening highway, I was overwhelmed by the magic of my life, by the blessings of this one day that we spent in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I could see nothing but gold.