This is how I want to be . . . running with my arms out to embrace the world.
That is my niece and nephew running down to the sea. I looked after them and their brother the other day. On the way home from the park we always take a detour to see if our favourite deep puddle is full of water. It was. We all took our shoes off, rolled up our pants and jumped in. There is something so satisfying about jumping in a puddle, warm from the sun, in the middle of the afternoon when you know most other adults on the planet are at work. We smiled at everyone who passed. There were a few dogs out for a walk who wanted to join us. Caleb asked me if he could sit down in the water and I said, "If you belonged to me you could, but I'm not sure if your Mum will mind or not." "Oh bother," he said, I forgot to check." When we got home we asked and the answer was, "Yes, if you have your old clothes on." So now we know for next time!
We collected a few treasures along the way. Livi found this wonderful mossy twig for me. Caleb's hands were full of spiky chestnuts and rocks, Livi had two handfulls of snail shells and Asher carried the soccer ball. We met butterflies and bumble bees, found a perfect dried grass hut and checked the stream for signs of life. It was one of those afternoons of perfect happiness, as I grinned to myself, because these were all the things I thought about doing with them before they were born. We almost lost them several times before they were born at 30 weeks. So tiny, but perfect. And here they are, all of them so much themselves. Which brings me to . . .
“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
I love you Caleb, Olivia and Asher x x
