A funny thing happened today on the way to Kindergarten.

Mo became a Big Girl.

Yeah…weird. I know.

And not in like a, Wow! I can’t believe we’re driving to kindergarten. She’s five! She’s so big. Because she is, truly, still so little.

It’s just that there were two moments so poignant and grace-filled, I was completely caught off guard…

As we were driving, just she and I, to the very special, very first, half-day of school where parents stay with the kids (which I suspect is more for the grownups than the kiddos), Mo and I were playing eye-spy. She suddenly got a goofy look on her face.

“What’s up Mo?” I asked in the rearview mirror.

“Sometimes it’s so weird to think. I mean, sometimes I think about thinking! Also, it’s so weird that I am alive and I am a person. I mean, I see other people, but I am also a person! That makes my brain feel funny…”

Whoa… Daughter, that is deep. That’s like Philosophy 101 type stuff. How can my baby girl be thinking about thinking?

Because she’s not a baby any more.

Then, as we left school today, I said, “Love, let’s go take a picture in front of Mary’s grotto. Maybe we can bring flowers tomorrow for your first day at school alone.”

She reached out and touched Mary, said a prayer and then I asked for a picture.

“Smile with Mama Mary, my Love. Let’s get a picture of the two of you, because she is going to Love you and Take Care of you while you’re at school. When I can’t be there.”

I choked up a bit. Trying to put on a brave face.

“You too Mama! You take a picture too, because she is going to take care of you when I’m gone too!”

Then I lost it.

Because I knew. I knew it was True, and that Truth was spoken from the mouth of my Baby.

No, my Big Girl.

Mary knows. She knows how hard it is to say goodbye. Even the goodbyes that seem so little to the outside world. She knows how big they are, here in my heart-world.

And she will take care of my heart, guarding the big part here in my chest, and the little part, marching confidently through that classroom door.

She’ll take care of both of us.

…

The other thing that made me cry today (I am a mess!): Andy surprised us at school!

Then he left flowers in the car.

Another guardian of our hearts.