What makes me happy?
Many things – however I will tell you just one.
Small hands waving in the air, a charming, demanding creature wanting to have a cookie in both hands – not just one. A carefree laughter that speaks of security, love and dependence. A curled-up body on your chest, completely trusting, completely accepting... completely asleep. Talking that isn’t made for consumption or comprehension - but enjoyed all the same. A small teetering figure swaying like a drunk man coming towards you, accomplishment bright in spark-lit eyes. Tantrums that make more mess than any small creature has the right, but somehow the capacity to make. These small, tumbling, fragile creatures with determinations of steel make me happy. They make me happy as they grow and discover the taste of worms was not for them. Realising there is a world outside the car window, grinning back at children in school busses. When mixing blue and red together cause shock and amazement when another colour appears out of nowhere. When hills are natures playgrounds and cardboard boxes are portals to another dimension. Their worlds may be smaller, but they have the ability to transport themselves to a place no plane could take you. To dinosaur shaped clouds and magic wands made from sticks. Rocks gathered from the path more precious in that moment than any jewel a queen could wear.
Those small, determined creatures learn more in four years than they ever will again in such a small amount of time. And to have the honour and privilege to have a place in their journey is one I work hard to have.
What makes me sad you ask?
A few things I suppose.
But perhaps, just between you and me.
That I may never have one of my own.
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