The down-side to kids

Or, at least, one of them.

In that moment I tried to imagine my little girl as a teen-ager, sobbing in my arms because she thought she was ugly, or because she was lonely, or because someone had been cruel and wounded her heart. I remember that I could just barely imagine the sadness, and it took my breath away.

These days I live with that kind of pain all the time.

Rrg. Makes me cringe and clench my fists just to think of it now. What it will be like then, I can’t imagine, and don’t even want to think of.