The Zoey Blog: A Breathtaking Story of Devotion FINAL - COVER UNIVERSE EXPLORERS ORDER


Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A Breathtaking Story of Devotion

I owe a small apology to Netta & Mark. I missed nearly a two hour chunk of their wedding day. I missed dinner, and most of the speeches aside from their own. I snuck off just before dinner to help a tired little girl rest, nap if we were lucky, and she did. I had intentions of putting her down, ushering in sleep, and quietly retreating back into the wedding fray of guests, family and friends, but that's not how it worked. The little girl fell asleep on my chest while reading our second Robert Munsch book, and I couldn't bring myself to put her down.

I thought of the wedding going on downstairs, of your Mom and Dad both beaming with pride and sweating the effort of it all, and I looked down at my daughter and found giant tears in my eyes. Someday she would do just as you had done earlier that day, and she would never in a million heavy hearted days remember sleeping in her father's arms that afternoon. It would slip past in the stream of memories that would rush past her on her hurried way through living and loving. After a few minutes I couldn't have managed to make it back downstairs with any coaxing. Zoey was sleeping in my lap and how could I be sure how many more of those moments I was to have before it was my daughter wearing white, and me saying goodbye.

She slept with her back to my chest, sitting on my lap, her head tipped to the side and resting on the inside of my arm and shoulder. From where her head fell I could see the beauty mark on her cheek, and I brushed away the blonde curls from her forehead as her hair fell across her eyes and crowded her face. Her eyelashes were so long. Her skin so fair and her mother's lips pouted ever so slightly. She would never again sleep through a wedding with only Robert Munsch and her Dad to keep her company. I might remember those hours as brightly lit as any in my life, but even as I feel that I owe you and everyone in attendance an apology, I wasn't trading my moment for yours, not for a million dollars. I couldn't even close my own eyes for fear I would sleep myself and it would all disappear. If I've learned anything about living after all these years it's that owning moments is less selfish than wise. They fall away far too fast. So as you were celebrating the biggest thing to ever happen in your life, so was I. Mine just had a far smaller audience and dinner would have to wait.

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