Crib Notes

Quiet


My house is asleep. Children, husband, dogs, cat, mice and hamster.

Sound asleep. I walk around in the stillness and wonder at it. This is the sound that will be here when they are gone - off to school, work, off to chase birds and wander the yard. Tiny clicks of clocks, the sound of water slipping through a hose somewhere, the deep hum in my ear of blood making it's way all around my mind.

I like the quiet, but I know someday I'll have far too much of it. Someday it won't be just the silence of sleep, but the silence of absence.

I will long for these crazy days, when I can't keep up and feel time slipping through my fingers. I will long for the laughter, the shouts, the squeak of springs on the trampoline, the calls for Mommy over and over.

But still, I won't wake them tonight, demand they bring back to life this house. There will be time. There always is.