It's My Day

April 5th -- It's my day! 2011 - 1941 = 70!! How did that happen?

"Once upon a time

when days were still fresh

and new,

ordinary

and uncomplicated,

I was a free child

in love with everything...

a bee buzzing

the wind in my hair

a branch to hang from

bare feet in the grass

dandelions and fairies

teddy bears.

I don't remember growing up.

It must have happened while I wasn't looking

but it is obvious from my heart

that it has happened

for I am less simple

more complicated

and more cluttered.

I would not choose

to become a child again

but I am looking to children

and searching in them

for a simplicity and ordinariness

that makes being an adult

easier to accept

and miracles easier to see.

Children are not too sophisticated

to wonder

to take off their shoes

to reach out, and up

and all around

for that's where miracles are.

The child in me longs

to touch all of the adults I know

with the magic wand of littleness

and perform that great miracle

of enabling them to understand

that it's not too late

to live happily ever after.

The problem is so simple

they could miss it.

Their teddy bears

they've thrown too far

and how desperately they need them."

From page 21 of the Harper paperback, Seasons of Your Heart, by Macrina Wiederker

(Can anyone tell me how photos, like the one above, were colored? This was taken at home; I know because that's our old house behind me.)