a portal to my inner child

This is Sadie - for the last 7 months I’ve gotten to spend time with her during most of my weeks for “work” and she has become such an important and valuable soul in my life. We have a sisterly bond, we laugh at everything together and love to playfully run around in nature. She loves to show me little insects she finds, brings her toy “baby” with her everywhere (that she treats like an actual human), loves to be a help in any way, enjoys walking barefoot, hugging trees and talking to the birds that fly by us.  She brings out the kid in me and reminds me of myself when I was younger. I try to be the person for her that I wish I had when I was her age. 

In the last couple of months, I’ve been reminded of how special children are and how much we can learn from them if we just listen and treat them as individuals that also need love, validation, and compassion. Even though they don’t have as high of intellect or common sense as adults, I believe that some are wiser in so many areas. Sadie has such a present and simple way of viewing life, maybe because she's seeing and feeling things for the first time in her most vulnerable, curious, and raw state. So many of us have been shaped by our environments, school, parents, and society and lack the vulnerability and rawness that children like her bring to the world. I’m pretty grateful that we get to learn from one another. She brings me into the present moment and reminds me that life isn’t really that serious. Here’s to more tree-hugging, spider searching, and conversations with birds.