diaphanous

diaphanous adj. (of fabric) light, delicate or translucentI don't think of babies as being light, airy and delicate. Perhaps it is because my own son is a toddler now and destruction seems always in his wake. Sure. Babies are delicate and "diaphanous" in some ways. In the grand scheme of life, however, I believe that at birth we are our strongest...let me explain.When we are born, we are new. All of our parts have been oiled and our bones and skin have never been used. We are taken out of our packaging and arrive into the world in a most dramatic way. Even our lungs have never breathed air before. And from that day of birth, we grow to be more and more used. When my son walks around, he seems so solid and strong - like his legs are made of steel - but each day they learn a pattern, a gait. They get worn in.It is as if the world erodes us and makes us more light and delicate as we journey through life. "Diaphanous" makes me think of the delicate, translucent skin of an old woman's hands...or the thinning white, wispy hair of my long deceased grandmothers. And why cannot this be as beautiful as birth and youth? The fact the the world has washed away the newness of a person the same way the ocean waters erode the land and shores? I think it is just as beautiful, if not more so.I think it best to live life in quest of losing more and more of yourself. Life is to let the world take of you what it will until there is nothing left. Sometimes perhaps it will be pain that leaves a permanent scar, but other times it will be the joy of laughter that will force a dozen breaths from your lungs...never to return again - permanent and beautiful all the same.We are born with the strength of steel, and if we are lucky die with the delicate lightness of lace.