Love...The unforced affection of children teaches us a great deal in the art of giving love freely. Many an uptight and controlling adult has found herself initiated into the softer, laughing realms of love and levity by her own children. Moments of closeness between parent and child can remain vivid and warm for a lifetime. They become personal emblems. Sophia (7) was picking fireweed with her mother in the lower paddocks of Cortona. It was a ridiculously impossible task, thousands, perhaps millions
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of little floating discs of fireweed dotting the acres of tussocky wind-silver grass. Tiny figures in the landscape, they zigzagged across the property, stooping continually to pull up a seed-starred plant and then thrusting it into a sack that they dragged along. They worked in silence in the hot sun. After a while they stopped for a breather and raised their eyes to take in the immense yellow carpet of weed. Suddenly the little girl looked up at her mother and said the most loving words anyone can say to someone else: I love you. You keep me company.
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