Magical night

I hate how words can't truly capture the essence of an experience. They always come up far short.

Tonight on the way back from a quick trip to Target, Silvi and I stopped to walk by a lake down the street from us. We live fairly close to downtown, so the Minneapolis skyline lit the water like, well, look at the picture.

Silvi ran and skipped and hopped and ran some more. We threw sand into the glassy water. Dozens of Canadian geese, taking a break from the trek south, lined the shore. Joggers ran in silence in the warm night air.

But see, the words are not enough. There were stars, lots of stars, and Silvi broke out into "Twinkle, twinkle little star" without any prompting from me. She was so - alive.

Spontaneous and unplanned, the half-an-hour my daughter and I spent by the still waters of Lake Calhoun tonight will remain with me forever.