Through Child’s Eyes

Happiness. A child's greatest friend, the laughter of the delicate life filled with naive joy. What does a child know about loss, the cold empty of sadness? The tears that form from the simple loss of a toy, or the escaped cat that has left the room. Hands are held together as they walk through life together, but what happens when the hand that is held is gone? Cannot you see through the eyes of a child and understand what they understand, for they perceive more than you think.

My mother was in tears, she sat on the prayer rug and wept. The worst sound on earth is that of your mother's cry, undesired to those young and unknowing ears. Her heart was filled with sadness but the reason why was unknown to me at the time, but the naive understanding of pain and loss was known through the simple tears in my mother's eye. She sat and my young heart broke watching my mother. My feet lead their way to her. I sat on her lap and wrapped my fingers around her neck saying

"It's okay mama, don't cry, don't cry." I pat her back to give her comfort and she embraced me, holding me tighter than before taking the comfort that her child provided her.

"Thank you, my love," she whispered and held me in her arms until she could let me go. What I did not understand was that the comfort I had provided her was the comfort she desperately desired to provide to her own mother. Her mother whom I had seen her call every day, and always hear the promise to come visit her soon, though many miles separated them. That day I remember no phone rang and no promise made, I never understood loss till the quiet house was no longer filled with the 5'clock phone call.