There are three brand new babies on my road. Two are a single day apart, and the other beat them to fresh air by a couple of weeks. I like imagining that they will be friends, when their world expands beyond the yard. 

 

I passed one today, enjoying the birds from her stroller. I had taken my son to the airport for his 7 a.m. flight back to California, after a wonderful visit. The baby was content in the pram, and I asked her mother if it had been a rough night. 

 

She tried to express the tired feeling without actually complaining, since her daughter was right there listening. I understood. 

 

Our son Lukas brought his Apple Vision Pro and we had a chance to try it out. I already knew I was outclassed by technology, but this erased all doubt. Being immersed in the panorama of Banff amazed me. I stood an arm's length from a slackliner who looked at me with her brown eyes even as she balanced above a chasm. Somehow, I created colorful ribbons in the air with my finger, which then plunked to the floor. I would say that I cannot wrap my head around the experience, but it was literally wrapped around mine. 

 

One of the conversations with Lukas was about events around the world. I have mostly cloistered myself from the particulars, and certainly the graphic images, but he pushed my blinders aside just a little. It rattled me, to admit that such travesties are happening to children. To babies. To mothers. 

 

As chance would have it, a friend whom I trust calmed my heart, which was unspooling. 

 

"There is very little I can do to bring relief to those families, suffering across the world. But I can pour my energy into raising children who don't perpetuate it."

 

I remembered the triplet of babies on my road, and felt enormous gratitude for their parents who love them unabashedly.