Sam portrait

Earth leans away from its star, and Sam's eyes grow wide in wonder. Twirling leaves, flocks of honking geese, chilly air, the scent of woodfires, football on TV, fuzzy jackets. When we take walks, Sam leans forward in his stroller and pumps his arms up and down wildly, laughing at the squirls, gurgling at the wind whistling in the pines, shouting his wonderment at the world. Once he grabbed a large branch beside his stroller and, his face glowing, dragged it with his chubby fist for about a block. When he finally let it go, his body was heaving with the effort and he grinned up at me with the thrilled look of a conquoror.