Tonight as she lay sleeping I sorted through my daughter's hair ribbons.She starts school tomorrow. There were a lot of ribbons and I was looking for just the right one for her first day. One of them was mine from when I was small. I held it and remembered my mother teaching my how to roll it up and stick a straight pin in it to hold it in place. I would be so careful when trying to pick one out of my own basket but somehow always managed to prick a finger. My method now is far more crude. Then I came across the small bow that had been her first; the one the nurse had stuck on her head with KY Jelly when she was only a few hours old! Gross! I'm sorry but you should not encounter KY Jelly until you are much older! Slowly, as I looked at all those ribbons lying there on the floor, her life began to unfurl; a pink satin ribbon I'd bought to match an Easter dress, stripped grosgrain from a mermaid birthday costume, rich brown ones that had been lovingly tied onto birthday gifts from dear friends (you just have to love a real ribbon on a gift!), remnants of bows we had attached to friend's baby shower invites and some thin champagne colored stuff from bouquets... as they curled around me I realized I was seeing my daughter's life in ribbons. And what a beautiful life it has been.
Tomorrow we will send her off to begin a new loop in that life. I wonder what colors and textures it will hold. Will this new experience be wound tightly around her? Will it be wide and flowing? I can only hope that we will all look back on with as much fondness as that which has already passed. And yes, I did choose RED ribbons for tomorrow! "When in doubt, wear red!" (Bill Blass)
