When We Were Young

October 16th 2022

The young girl, not long after her fourth birthday, ran giddily through the backyard. She wore a red polo shirt and blue jeans shorts that fell just above her kneecaps, one of which bore a scab from a wipeout in the driveway two days before.

The early summer rain had produced millions of blades of vibrant green grass that softened under the weight of her small, bare feet. She danced in the delicate streams of water which burst from a small sprinkler and her shorts soon were soaked and sagged under the weight of it. She ran up and bravely planted her feet, leaned over and held her face in the water, coming up only for a breath periodically as she pranced about and returned once again.

Her imagination took her places unimaginable for me now, but I do imagine she was content and fearless and quite lionhearted in those days, and her love for the water and the grass and the earth never faltered.

“I imagine, therefore I belong and am free.”

~Emily Dickinson