Think how different life was at the beginning of March
February 29 was not that long ago. It is a date that will not happen for another four years… but I wish I could go back to that day. Rewind. Over and over. The new Groundhog Day.
This is my February 29: On the way to the park with our grandchildren, which constitutes a good day right there, we passed two girls. The girls were about 12, maybe 13 years old — fourteen at the most.
They were laughing. I mean the kind of loud laughing that makes you turn your head. Since we were passing them, we did not have to turn our head, we just observed.
A dad will tell you that raising a girl is hard. But the reality of it is that it is hard to be a girl and more specifically to be a teenaged girl. I realize that. The social pressures and a million other things going on at that time are experiences I can never truly relate to… but know about.
On this day, the sound of their laughter was magical.
The “why” they were laughing was sweet and innocent. It was creative. Apparently, it was fun.
They had fruit. Lots of it. Grapefruit. Cantaloupe. Oranges. Maybe some tomatoes and apples. And, they had a baseball bat.
They were taking turns batting. They were hitting the fruit. Imagine for a second, seeing a grapefruit pitched to you. Imagine for a second taking a fierce 12–13 year old (ish) swing, and hitting the grapefruit.
Splat. Splatter. Juice. Chunks. Ok, now it is time for the orange. Repeat.
Keep in mind we just walked by; I did not do any play by play or anything. So I can only assume that they were full of fruit juice…in their hair, on their shirt, everywhere. I can only assume it was sticky. I can only believe the smell of the fruit was a beautiful fragrance at a park on a sunny warm day in Metro Phoenix.
And I don’t have to assume this….I know it was fun. The laughter at that time, on that day, really has stuck with me.
As we stay in our house, as some work is missed…as I hear about and watch the pain of others that have it way worse than my family….I think back to February 29.
Two teenage-ish girls were laughing and having fun being a kid. And, are you ready for this — when we walked back to that area about an hour later…everything was cleaned up. There were no signs of fruit..not even any seeds lying around.
Good kids. Happy kids. Beautiful laughter. A sunny day. In the park with my grandchildren.
Three short weeks later, that day seems like a lifetime ago…Ah, what I would give for another day like February 29.
