Page 12 - The Houseguest

leaving tenderness behind in the wake of its wrath.
It will fester like a wound;
it will spread and it will grow. How much damage it will do
depends on when you let it go.”
I didn’t know how much love a heart could hold, or even that it was capable of being enlarged when full, until she told me our baby would arrive in seven months. I was overjoyed, happily surprised and petrified. Forthcoming was more vulnerability, more worry, more fear and more chances to put my heart on the line. Watching Karina’s body conform around the growth of our baby felt to me almost supernatural. She seemed to accept the changes to her own body more comfortably than I did. I never thought there would come a time when she could look more beautiful to me, but the love for the child growing inside of her every day was palpable and somehow made her even more lovely. My life was again changed forever when our little Katie was born in June.
I had never cried tears. As a child I was taught that tears expose weakness. But after watching my newborn daughter accept those first breaths into her lungs, the tears I’d held for thirty-three years fell freely. I couldn’t stop them, nor did I try, unafraid of appearing weak in front of anyone anymore. The only opinion that mattered was Karina’s and she wanted me to be real. It seemed my tears meant something
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The Houseguest by Linda Ellis www.LindaEllis.life