Five Minute Friday: Small

Normally on Fridays I write on my caregiver blog http://lisa-alittlebitofthisandthat.blogspot.com/ - stories about my mom and our dance with Alzheimer's, but today's prompt took me immediately to my daughter's eyes and I had to switch gears and write here - the place I try to capture stories about my family that will remind them always how much they were loved....I wonder if I can do any justice in just 5 minutes....?

Small

Last night was my daughter's first drama performance - try outs, rehearsals, costumes, expectations - the whole package.  And she has been loving it.

She is a mermaid.  She is part of a trio.  She had to have curly mermaid hair and a big seafoam green costume with a mermaid tail.

She was fearless at tryouts.  Quick in learning her lines.  Dedicated in rehearsing & refining.  Excited as the night approached.  She made me forget that she might be nervous.  That this was a BIG DEAL.  That she was performing in front of a LOT of people.

I'm a performer - and I adored it.  Why wouldn't she...my beautiful girl.  My mermaid.

And then we got there and she came on stage and I could see her look for me.  She is me.  It was a big night, but for a few very important seconds it was just the two of us, eyes locked, on the edge of the first line.

In the middle of all the lights and make-up and glitter and excitement - it was just my girl and me.  Small.  Intimate.  Courageous.  Together.  In being small together in the seconds before her first line, she knew she wasn't alone.  She knows we know she can do anything.

And so she was a mermaid.  A glittery, singing, funny, laugh-getting, line emoting mermaid.

Being a mom is so many wonderful things. But the connection we have with our children that allows us to be small in the midst of anything the world throws at us is really big!  And I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world.



This post is part of Lisa Jo Baker’s Five Minute Friday, in response to the prompt “small” I wrote for 5 minutes and published without editing, in 5 minute Friday tradition.