Mother's Day

There is a home not far from where I live that boasts of 4 beautiful cherry trees lining its sidewalk. Every spring they shower their petals upon the sidewalk below, creating the most beautiful pink carpet. This Mother's Day I wanted to gift my mother and mother-in-law something different, so last Monday when Abigail arrived home from school I told her she could put her homework off and get fancy, because we were going to have a photoshoot under the cherry trees.

We walked a few blocks from where we parked, and then the girls just seemed to know what to do - they began running and playing in the fallen petals.

We were only there for 20 minutes, but they are 20 minutes I will never forget. Instead of the typical Monday afternoon grumpy-ness, filled with whining, bickering, tedious domestic decision-making and BS, I was able to live in the moment with my girls and revel in the beauty and joy of this time that I have with them. This brief time when they will still hold my hand across the street and allow me to pick leaves from their hair.

There are just a few years left before they realize that I cannot fix everything that breaks in their lives, before they begin to push away on their own and begin the metamorphasis into the talented and brilliant women they are destined to be.

After a few minutes I realized that the people sitting in their cars waiting for the light to change were smiling and waving at us, as if they recognized this special, spontaneous and unscripted moment for what it was.

The absolute best Mother's Day gift I could have hoped for.

(If you'd like to see all 30 photos from thos shoot, you can view them here on my Flickr page.)