a walk

I took a walk with little Hajiba the other day.  She's 5, the light of my life, and the biggest ray of sunshine you will ever meet.  I feel like she taught me everything I needed to know about life in that one hour walk.

Originally I was going to go alone. At this news, Hajiba sat down and started crying.  She didn't want me to go.  I was her playmate that day.  If I was going, she didn't just want but needed to go too.  Amidst some tears, her mom eventually said, "Ok, you can go."  When life gets painful or hard, sometimes you need to sit down and cry for a minute, but then you get up and move on. Eventually, in their own way, things will end up okay.

We walked the whole way with her little hand in mine.  When we felt like it, we ran, jumped, or just simply walked at our own pace chatting and singing songs along the way. At one point she got scared by a dog barking nearby.  She leaned into me for protection and comfort.  I was there.  I would have protected her.  As we walked, she picked almonds off the trees not even breaking her stride.  It was a reminder to me that life always provides beautiful and precious gifts.  You just need to look for them and seize them.  But the greatest thing I learned from Hajiba that day is that anything and everything is better when you can hold someone's hand...