The things said in this book, itself a second birth, took root in the wake of the births of my two daughters: Chloe Aliza and Hannah Aveline. The appearance of these two beginners was for me an awakening in which the world came to life in new ways as two new lives found their ways into the world. They arrived with a wonderful openness to things, indeed, with the openness of wonder. Listening at first largely by touch, they felt their way into the world. Each was in her own way receptive to the myriad expression of things. As she learned to use her hands, Chloe would slowly, determinately reach out for a toy wooden block that, once procured, released the secrets of its insistent solidity as she turned it over, pressed upon it, dropped and recovered it, and finally, as if its very essence could be tasted, placed it in her mouth. And Hannah, always with an irrepressible smile, would stretch out her hand toward the water dripping from the spigot in the bath, feel its inviting warmth and elusive liquidity, try and fail to grasp it, only then to announce with a screech of pure delight that what you really need to do with this is splash.