Si, Se Puede!

I put a picture up on the wall above my computer today. It's a photo of a young sort of Peruvian looking woman with a baby tied to her back, gazing at the camera with an expression of such warmth and friendliness that the first time I saw it, I could hardly look away. I just stared at her, captivated. She seems to be saying to me, "You can do it." I'm not sure what she's reassuring me I can do - that I will have the strength someday to have a baby, like her? That I will be happy in my life, despite uncertainties and dangers? That I will be loved? Her eyes have a kind of timeless peacefulness. They project love, the way the famous green eyes of the refugee girl on the National Geographic cover projected fear, and the eyes of the little girl trapped in the mudslide in the Life photo projected misery. It's almost like she's reaching across the miles to give me a hug. I'll never meet this woman, but I wish she was my friend.