Rainy Saturday

It started raining as we climbed into bed, and it'll probably continue all night, keeping us in a very deep sleep. With a metal roof above us, tucked into our flowery day beds, 20 years seems to have vanished without a trace.
Tonight we watched family videos. Christmas '88. Disneyland '92. Tangly hair and eternal highways. Endless beaches and empty diners. Waves and wind and laughter. Hot cocoa and sourdough toast. Snowshoes and tea parties. Mountain passes and canoes in the summer. Horses and shoetunes. Movie stars and nostalgia. A better childhood couldn't have been conjured by the best imagination.

Tonight as I lie in a bedroom decorated just for two darling girls, I know that our entire childhood was carefully planned, painstakingly guarded and lovingly tended. I know that because years of living were dedicated to our happiness, just as Andrew and I try to for our girls. We didn't know it then, which is why I can appreciate it now. Like elves in the workshop, our childhood was fashioned into an Alice in Wonderland world of fun by people who strove to make it magical, and we never even knew it. Maybe they didn't either.
It takes very special people to give a child a Willy Wonka world.
Innocent people who have the gift of appreciating simple pleasures. Only the greatest of people can stay innocent forever. They're the ones who never stop believing in magic. And they're the ones who can pass that magic on.
That why it always rains when we crawl into bed. Magic people never accept less.