bennett & isaiah

Day 88: Bennett and Isaiah are my cousin’s sons. They have two older siblings, a brother and a sister, whom they love and trust wholeheartedly. At the start of the weekend, they were quite shy towards me and when I asked them questions, they stared into space away from me and reached for their mother behind their backs. Last night as I was playing songs on the Uke after dinner they took notice. At first, they peeked at me from behind Melissa at the other end of the table, inching closer, verse by verse, until they were grinning directly at me not one yard away, squirming with the desire to ask a question. I offered them the Uke and their eyes lit up with excitement. For the next hour or so they took turns strumming as the activity around them faded into the background.

Tonight, we ran around the yard and played hide and seek. Once found we would stare at each other on all fours, beat our chests, growling and snarling, until the tension broke and the stand-off gave way to a prolonged chase fueled by laughter.

One piece of wisdom that Joe gave me yesterday that I did not write about is that he tries to view all his actions in terms of how it will affect the next seven generations. As I played with Bennett and Isaiah these words returned to me.

Thank you Simone (@simoneamarie) for lighting ❤️💡

88 | itasca state park