The Living Is Easy

I loved the summer when I was growing up. It seemed to last forever. I have no memory of rainy days or being bored. I just remember everything being wonderful. It didn't take much to make things wonderful, just a hose or a book or the smell of the grass. Just "being" seemed to be wonderful during the summer.

As an adult, I absolutely adore watching my girls enjoy the simplicity of the warm weather. From my kitchen window, I watched the twins hide a piece of chalk pretending it was an Easter egg. I watched them each devour ice cream cones (Sprinkle Party Cake ice cream for Katie, and Mint Chocolate Chip for Bethie). I watched them pick daisies from my garden and put them in each other's hair. Idyllic.

Then Katie went on the swing, and I grabbed my camera. A pretty little girl on a swing is the epitome of summer for me. She went back and forth, higher and higher. Then she did what every little girl does, she flung her shoes off.

Katie's shoe is in the top right-hand corner of the photo

Shoes (and empty Popsicle moulds) are littered on the ground

Perfection! Does it ever get any better than this? We spend our adulthood trying to capture how Katie feels right at this moment. And it makes me happy that she was lucky enough to be born middle-class, and in this country, with access to health care and education. She has opportunities that 6 billion people on this planet can only dream of. None of this matters to her, because she is flying!

You may ask yourself where Bethie was. My accident-prone first born had fallen off the lawn chair. She was sitting on the deck, giving me an update on the status of her body. She said, "My toes are...okay. My ankle? Not broken! My bottom is...alright etc". Thank God, Bethie, I'm running out of My Little Pony band-aids because you have too many phantom injuries!