Hope for Lily

You got to sing like you don’t need the money, Love like you’ll never get hurt

You gotta dance like nobody’s watching; it’s got to come from the heart if you want it to work.

Kathy Matea – Come from the Heart

There is a new soul on this earth. She is born of my baby girl, a miracle of life, a testament to life always moving ever forward, a statement from God that we are still in favor.

I have hopes for this child as I have hopes for our other grandchild, Noah, as I have hopes and dreams for the grand-daughter to be who will be born in October. Hopes are what we bequeath to our children, to the next generation, hopes are what we provide to the next in line, hopes and dreams are our gifts to those we love that live their lives as ours have reached their zenith.

I hope and dream this child is able to recognize the miracle that is her life, the miracle that is life, that she is and always will be a child of something greater than herself, that she is a child of God.

I hope she lives and feels life with the passion of her grandmother and, like Marty, I hope she is able to see and feel the intensity of the colors of her world. I hope she possesses the same courage and sheer persistence of her grandmother and the knowledge that life requires us to constantly move forward.

I hope she finds a passion for her life and is able to live that passion.

I hope she learns to cry for the right reasons and at the right times, but mostly I hope she never has to cry too much. I hope she smiles a little every day of her life and that she laughs every time she can.

I hope she laughs out loud and embraces the sheer enjoyment of a moment as much as her daddy Lyle.

I hope she has the same empathy and tolerance for others as her mother, Erin. I hope she can cry and laugh with friends and family and wrap her arms around them with the same compassion and intensity as her mom.

I hope she has the love of family and the loyalty of her Grandma Eileen and the happiness and frivolity of Grandpa Larry.

I wish her the health and verve of her great-grands and I hope she gets to know how special their love for her is.

I hope she grows to know and understand that all of the women in her life, her mother, her grandmothers, her aunts and her greats-- are all remarkable, brave and strong, and that’s a really good thing and that she can be and do anything she can conceive.

I hope she finds someone to love and someone who loves her intensely. I hope she lives long enough to enjoy the singular joy in loving others and being loved by many.

I hope she has a wonderful, long, healthy life filled with hopes and dreams and that some of those hopes and dreams come true. I hope I get to dance at her wedding and hold her children and hope and dream for them as they are born.

Mostly I hope she finds a way to enjoy her life completely and that she gets to “dance like nobody’s watching” her whole life.