Hearty congratulations to my friends who have just welcomed a baby girl into the world. I have been eagerly anticipating this event ever since I saw 4 crows on a tree in Asheville, NC a week ago.
One for sorrow: two for mirth: three for a wedding: four for a birth: five for silver: six for gold: seven for a secret, not to be told: eight for heaven: nine for hell: and ten for the devil's own sel [self].
[1846 M. A. Denham Proverbs relating to Seasons, &c. 35]
How nice to be able to do nothing but be a baby, and bring such joy to your parents and their family and friends. I think they remind us of the joy of being alive.
"A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again," to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again," to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."
--G.K. Chesterton
