La Vita Nuova (a new life)

Thursday, Mar. 18, 2010-11:01 am
This one of my favorite poems. It is by Dante Alighieri , the Italian poet, author of the "Divine Comedy" .

La Vita Nuova

In that book which is
My memory . . .
On the page
That tells about when
I first met you
Appear the words . . .
Here begins a new life

- Dante Alighieri

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It reminds me of the transformation when your children are born and the way that you gave them life and they give you new life as well.

When I used to go to pick up my daughter Nicole at school, that first year of Pre-Kindergarten 8 years ago, I experienced an abundance of pure joy whenever I would see her emerge from the school door. I'd quickly glance past every other child and find my baby. I wouldn't even see the other kids. I'd only see my child. My heart felt like it was filled to the bursting point with love and pride. The love is just huge and heavy. Tears started coming to my eyes and I had to brush them away.

My daughter just won a state-wide Catholic elementary school essay contest about an image of courage. She will have lunch with the mayor and her teacher and the essay will be published in the paper. I felt the same ecstatic rush when I heard this that I felt when I first saw her emerge from her first day of school.

She would not let me read it at first, but this morning she left a copy of it on the printer. I read it, just a few minutes ago, and I was stunned. What she wrote about was haunting. All the other kids wrote stories about astronauts , or martyred saints, or Olympic athletes, or soldiers. Her image of courage was about ...herself.

She wrote that "courage is the opposite of fear. " She described the quiet desperation that she felt when her father was hospitalized and was undergoing treatments had stage 2-B colon cancer. She wrote about how her best friend's dad had just died of stomach cancer a few months before that. She wrote about how soon afterwards, that friend moved away . She described how "it had robbed me of my true self and in those dark days, I spent all my energy hiding the depression from everyone else".

..."And I had also decided not to be afraid of the sadness when it comes, because it still comes. But now when it comes I do not run away , I just sit still and feel it, the anguish of it, touch it, let it touch me, then , I have learned, it will eventually just let go of it's hold, and go up and fly away. The courage is within me".

'Out of the mouths of babes" as they say....

I'm not biased or anything, but seriously, this kid deserved the prize above all others.

(And, don't even get me started on how proud I am of my son! )

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