Baba's Blessings

Evan is free to fly, liberated by a trampoline embedded in a cork playground. Squealing with delight, he leaps for the sky and is not harmed. So far. I watch all the children on swings and slides or waiting in line for a turn on the trampoline on this first warm day.

May they know more of flying and less of fear. May their parents never be missing after a bomb blast. May they never lose a limb to munitions fired from tanks and need an amputation in a hospital that has no anesthetics, no antibiotics. May they never tear their fingers, prying at rubble that was their home. May they never know thirst or starvation. May they never be buried alive.

My wishes for the children have changed since October.