“Mommy, what if heaven is all a dream?” my younger son asked Thursday night, knowing that I was going away Friday to be with my 91-year-old father who has been hospitalized again.

“Yes, and what if life is all a dream?” I answered, hugging him. He looked up at me as if to say “You’re smart.” But then his face changed to express, “Then again, you might be crazy.”

An hour before, he’d actually watched our elderly male parakeet die at the bottom of its cage–as if worrying about Grandpa was not enough–and cried hard about the loss of his pet. Finally, my son found solace in the act of turning a bank check box into an Egyptian sarcophagus with a Star of David on the bottom.

It’s a good time for me to take a break. I’ll be with my father and siblings, my first break since November. Beliefnet will have the wonderful Marisa Lowenstein blogging for me next week. I am so grateful that she can fill in on short notice. I’ll be back in April, “the cruelest month.” And I know we’ll transcend it together.