You could make this place beautiful.

I am forever taking pictures of my children sleeping. This sweet picture of Piper is a favorite of mine. It really captures who she is right now. Piper Grace at 4 years old. Every bit as sweet as she seems right here. 

I love the world my daughters live in. It is so good and so full of love, joy, light, laughter, peace, and people who adore them. In the past I have thought about how cynical and sad people get as they age. and I can see it. I can see why. Even now I feel like my worldview is shifting and crumbling. Was I just not paying attention in the past? Why didn't I see how very fragile everything is?

So I suppose I'll just be thankful that, for now, they only know the world that we've created for them. Soon enough they'll know the rest of it. But until then, they can sleep in princess dresses and snow hats and red sunglasses with pink trolls and beloved books and polar bears and magic wands in their arms. and hopefully, some day, the world will deserve their goodness. 

Good Bones

By Maggie Smith

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.

Life is short, and I've shortened mine

in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,

a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways

I'll keep this from my children. The world is at least

fifty percent terrible, and that's a conservative

estimate, though I keep this from my children.

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.

For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,

sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world

is at least half terrible, and for every kind 

stranger, there is one who would break you,

though I keep this from my children. I am trying

to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,

walking you through a real shithole, chirps on 

about good bones: This place could be beautiful, 

right? You could make this place beautiful.