Thirtieth Thoughts

Swing
photo by Keith

Today is the start of a new decade for me. I am now 30. A friend asked me tonight, over chimichangas, what this coming year would hold. My mind immediately flashed back to earlier this afternoon when I was pushing my 12-month old in our backyard swing. It was 5pm and both girls were awake from their naps. Lily was chasing the dog around our yard and I had put Beret into the baby swing. It was hot today, and the swing set was still in full sun. I pushed her for a while, sweating, wishing the sun would set faster or that Keith would get home sooner. Suddenly Beret started doing something that I never remember Lily doing. She tossed her head as far back as the swing seat would let her. And she kept her head back, eyes closed to the blazing sun, and quietly jabbered to herself. She was the personification of peace and contentedness. She was living in the moment like only a child can.

I hope and pray that in this, my thirty-first year, I will become more childlike, more accepting of each moment- good or bad. I hope that I can throw my head back and face the sun.