If you've never witnessed someone learning to crawl, believe me when I tell you that it is full of profundities, symbolism, and chapped little chubby knubs. I've been watching and rallying Baby Girl to operate all those gears and levers at the right times MOVE THOSE CHAINS for a few weeks now, and I'm completely captivated. The arranging of limbs, the leveraging of different weights, the looking up with those eyes, hungry for approval. Then the bleating frustration of getting stuck with one leg akimbo. And then, just as you think she's ready to ... yeah! That's it, Baby Gir--- Face plant. Reminds me a lot of my twenties.

*** I got an envelope in the mail yesterday with a check enclosed. It wasn't a birthday card, but it may as well have been. It was my first paycheck from the community newspaper. My first payment - ever - for something I had written as a freelance reporter. I earned it, and yet it felt like a gift.

I've been crawling through my twenties and I have to say this latter half has been a much smoother, more joyful, much more rewarding coast. There have been a few false starts and plenty of face plants but I feel as though I'm getting the hang of it all, keeping the weights and strains in balance, not focusing so freaking much on the onlookers for approval. I've found a good rug upon which to practice, and maybe soon, I'll even be ready to stand to advance toward my twirites. But even then, it'll be in baby steps....

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I have chosen Ephesians 1:7-8 as the theme for my year in case you want to share in memorizing it with me!