Freedom, She Is a Girl

Last week, driving the Little Guy to school on a bitterly cold morning, I was stuck in traffic and still bundled in my hat and mittens when I saw a girl flash by on a bike. Wearing nothing but jeans and a white t-shirt, with two long black pigtails flying behind her, she stood on the pedals and weaved through the cars, then flew up and over a grassy hill. Watching her fly, stuck in the smoky exhaust of a winter traffic jam, I wanted to be her. I looked at the hill for a long time after she disappeared.

Comments

[Eve]

Wow--that is incredible...I've gotten that feeling watching adolescent boys riding skateboards down the a sloped hill.

[Joan Conde]

I can remember feeling this way...lovely! I have two daughters and always encourage them to be free, to play in the gutters during a summer downpour, to climb a tree, etc.

[moe]

What? Outside without a hat! what would her mother say.

[Roberta S]

Another perspective. Guess that's too long ago for me to appreciate the joys of such a carefree life. All I'd be thinking is 'My God. That girl is going to get an ear ache or a dreadful cold. Stop! Stop!', I say. 'You mustn't do that!'

[kelly]

Gorgeous. I can't look away either. I think I used to be her.