What are words worth?

I tuned into NPR's Fresh Air this morning (do you 'tune in' on the internet?) and looked to the list of stories on the right panel to find one I had not listened to earlier--an interview with Maurice Sendak on the occasion of the publication of Bumble Ardy. It was a great interview, conducted graciously as always by Terry Gross of Fresh Air. The interview itself made me think about a variety of things....the artistic imagination, the world of the child, death, relationships, fear and the whole host of things we all deal with as human beings. After listening to the interview, I went back to the home page and noticed something I had missed earlier--a special Fresh Air show dedicated to Sendak, on his death, just yesterday (May 8). The show features excerpts from several interviews with the children's author and illustrator, and reminiscences by other writers and journalists. From then on it was a short journey to discover the several other tributes paid in newspapers ac...

What is it that I miss most about being away from my children? Not being able to feel the texture of their days. Not knowing the turns they take as they move from sleep to wakefulness. Not having the moment of watching a sleep-covered face, to pull the covers over a shoulder exposed in the night. And yes, The messiness of rooms strewn with books and papers and notes falling apart from having been passed through too many hands under the unwatchful eye of a teacher focused on Q & A, holding in their folds the stimulus for silent laughter. Unfinished conversations. Scolding. Passing on bits of advice in the hope that they will find a space amidst the flashing synapses of their minds, now busy making connections of importance to a young life. In missing these moments I also miss the passage into new phases of life. Womanhood. Adulthood. New personhood.