Life

"Sơ, what is this?"
He held the little creature gingerly as we paused from our shoveling. It's tongue shot out suddenly.

Quang raised it closer to my face.
We were preparing my little patch of land for springtime vegetables. His parents, aunts and uncles had come to fix our fence. The winds and storms had shaken it loose and eventually broken in many spots. They brought their kids with them. The kids brought their laptops and video games with them. Not Quang and Hồng. The siblings sped around the convent, looking at and touching everything.

That was when they took me up on an offer of helping in the garden.
More exactly, they were shoveling dirt into their shoes.
They were both not more than ten years old.

"Sơ, what is it?" he repeated.
The thin strand-like creature remained erect instead of curling into a limp undulation.
Its tongue shot out again.

"It's a snake," I answered.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes."

"Aaah!" he screamed as he flung the snake into the far corner of the garden.
I suppressed a smile, noting a lack of his characteristic boisterous confidence.

"Quang, would you have picked it up if you knew it was a snake?" I asked after a few moments of the three of us staring towards where the snake had flown.
"No!" he emphatically replied.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!"
"You know how close you put that to my face?" I teased gently.
"Yes," he answered ruefully.

For the remainder of our time in the garden, the two clung close to me.
I could sense their lives next to mine.

And I wonder about those lives who don't get a chance to go outside.
Outside their mother's wombs.
Much less outside to feel dirt in their shoes and scare a nun with a snake.

Note: Do you know about the new legislation requiring Catholic employers to provide contraceptives and abortifacients?
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/rescind-hhs-dept-mandate-requiring-catholic-employers-provide-contraceptivesabortifacients-their/lBxr7SdP?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Photo: Lani Tee, a good friend of our community, took us to a Christ Child ProLife Luncheon in December.