A Remarkable Day

  She was a simple girl, simply walking around.  It was a common city park, close to her house.  She was "in touch"- open to the crisp fall air, the colored leaves, the bird songs, the movement.  The day was almost evening, and warm, honey colored sunlight dripped between the tallest branches of the old trees.  Deeper in the brush of the woods, and only for a second, she spotted two squirrels playing on the sunlit floor.  She breathed in the natural air, tasted of it, let it work itself into her skin and awaken her body.  It had been a remarkable day.

  Her toes refused to accept the thick socks and heavy shoes she wore, and were cold anyway.  Her neck shivered every time the wind blew.  Her fingers, deep inside her gloves, had gone from cold to numb.  And her nose- she just knew- was beet red.  But none of that mattered.  She was filled with a childlike wonder for the world outside herself, and she hardly noticed any discomfort in her frail body.  And as she strolled along the gravel pathway through the wooded park, with acorns falling around her, and the sounds of a bubbling creek somewhere nearby, she only wanted to marvel at the small details of nature.  She wanted to be impressed by the simple things, and she was.

  It had been far too long since she allowed herself to stop and see the world through her own eyes.  She had been a poor excuse for a human in recent years, allowing her internal struggles to overwhelm her and spill onto the surface and contaminate everything she touched.  She had been unhappy for too long.  But things were changing- she was changing, she was becoming less cluttered.  She had decided to go back to her childhood and redo everything- in fast forward, of course.  She would re-visit the things she used to love, back when she was innocent and happy, and make slight alterations so they would fit into an adult world.  Other people seemed to be so much better at being an adult than she, but she was in no hurry to catch up, she would take her time and enjoy it.  She would play outdoors, talk to animals, read a book while sitting in a tree, paint with her fingers- she would do it all again, but this time, she'd stay happy.  This time she wouldn't feel the need to grow up too fast, losing control and letting her world become dark.

  A jogger, clad in a red sweatshirt and navy shorts, approached from the opposite direction.  As he passed, she smiled and he nodded.  The simplest conversation- a conversation without words.  They had greeted each other, both of them friendly, both expressing a joy to be outdoors.  It was the easiest conversation to have, and yet it meant so much to a person starving for attention.  This was a remarkable day.  It was a day that shouldn't be here, at least, not for her.  An unhappy person, one cut off from human interaction, one who's life was spinning out of control, one who had almost lost her life only days before, and to that person, simply being able to walk around, look at falling leaves, and smile at another person, was the most remarkable thing of all.