Nature's First Green is Gold

I remember throughout my childhood my mom, and other wise individuals, saying to me "You'll understand when you are older." My entire youth I spent trying to speed up time, to get to a place where I felt I had reached my potential as an adult, and could live freely. I wasted an endless amount of time trying to be older than I was, creating pretenses to live by, and aspire to. Sadly enough, I'm older now, and I understand. When I sit back, and watch my kids grow, I feel like I'm grasping at air, gripping aimlessly at something that is slipping by faster than I can open and close the shutter. But time rolls on, and I find myself standing in the middle of a spinning world that simply won't hold still. I've come to accept the fact that my kids will grow up, they will leave, and I'll be left with the memories we created, of the time we spent. 
My babies  teach me everyday how to live and appreciate what often goes unseen.
I hesitate to think that the best time in my life will be retrospective, as described by the term "golden years". The actual golden age  is encompassed in these pictures. The real money shot is right here, and right now; letting the long grass tickle your face, soak you with dew, and cover you with the fresh sent of spring time.



Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-Robert Frost

Sugar and Spice, frogs and mice

I spent the afternoon running around Neola with these cool cats. Chasing frogs, riding horses, and watching the sun go down. Although we had a minor accident with the horse, and flipflop feet........we chalked it up to Friday the 13th, and got back in the saddle. We topped it off with smores, a KILLER dinner, and some unforgettable memories. 

I'm constantly amazed with the wonder of being a child. Watching every moment be filled with excitement and amazement is truly specific to a child. It's simple really, uncomplicated, and easy. I wonder if adults will ever find their way back to the pure joy of being happy, unabandoned. As a society we hold ourselves back from that emotion. We don't build swings and slides at the park big enough for adults....why is that? Maybe the world would be happier if every once in a while we threw sand, rolled down a grass hill, tried to swing over the bar, made a mud pie, and ran through the rain like we were never going to turn around. Being a child is not an age, it's a state of mind, never forgotten.

Spring swim