go ahead, walk through it

Thirty minutes ago I emerged from the mall where my PO box is. I had just dumped my massive annual springtime greeting card mailing at the post office and was feeling a bit jubilant. Thirty minutes before that, an all-day soaking spring rain (a rarity out here) finally lifted, and now the world was all sparkly — another reason for feeling jubilant. So when I came across a huge puddle in the middle of the sidewalk, I didn’t hesitate: I walked straight through it — but slowly. I looked down at my feet as I did so. I was reminded of being a little girl, doing the same thing, slowly, as if to savor the rarity of puddles. As though considering doing something naughty and wondering if I could get away with it. Or maybe the slowness came simply from a feeling of awe, of I can’t believe I really get to do this!

This afternoon as I walked through the puddle I looked up from my sloshing boots to see a slightly grizzled man in white t-shirt and worn Carharrt work pants approaching the sidewalk from the parking lot; we smiled at each other. He said, “You know, I used to do that when I was five, or six, or seven.“

To which I responded, “And I figure why not do it when we’re fifty or sixty?“

He threw up both his hands with joy and exclaimed or “seventy or eighty or ninety?!“

Go ahead. Walk through a puddle today — especially if they’re a rarity where you live.

And maybe even if they aren’t.

Psst…. See and read about one of my favorite puddles here.

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