Not Falling in Love

Trying not to worry too much about this thing that seems to happen to so many, many babies and their parents...the possibility of my baby falling. Is there any fear for a new parent that is more potent and more prevalent? Today, visiting a friend I hadn't seen in ages, I protested immediately when she offered to carry the twenty-pound baby in his eighteen-pound carseat down some very steep stairs. "Oh, no, I'll do it," I said, trying to sound loose and casual. Actually I might have sounded loose and casual, because I never imagined she'd try to do it. But after I brought the stroller down to the street I looked up and there she was, carrying this enormous baby in his enormous carseat down those awful stairs. "I'm not a ninety-pound weakling yet," she said in a joyful, determined way. Suddenly I just felt an enormous amount of love emanating from this older woman (who is, actually, very thin and in somewhat shaky health). And maybe that's what I need to remember: where there's love there are strengths of all kinds.