The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
The Purpose of Rainboots
The little girl is hustling out of daycare with her mother right behind. It’s been raining and Mom is trying to protect and preserve the handful of paper-crafts that her child undoubtedly produced. Through the wet weather, the creations needed to get to the refrigerator for proud display. When Mom calls out, “Oh no! Don’t!” I turn my head. The little girl is making a quick course to a miniscule puddle.
“Oh no,” the mother notices she’s drawn my attention, so she makes it clear that her scold is in jest, “Oh! Don’t go into that puddle with your boots, oh no!” Mom is smiling, raising the pitch of her voice, and she glances away from her girl to give me a grin. She wants to show me that it was all in good fun, to show that the purple galoshes were selected for just this sort of day. I give her a smile for so much good mothering–for preparations when there are forecasts of rain, for clutching those glue-encrusted-paper-crafts so carefully, for delighting that her daughter can truly be a child.
After all, those boots were made for splashing, and that’s just what they’ll do.
–Vermont
After the rain
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
What a picture this paints
Thank you, Joanne! 🙂 It was a delight to see.
Paige
children teach us what’s important don’t they.
Yes, they do! I need boots I can use to hop in puddles, perhaps. 🙂
I was at the beach one day and a mother shouted to her daughter, “Don´t you dare get that bathing suit wet!” I couldn´t believe my ears. (She seemed quite serious about it too) This was a delightful post.
Oh wow! The bathing suit is made to be wet, right? It wasn’t made of silk or something? 🙂 Thank you for your story and comment, Darlene! Here’s to jumping in!
Paige
This story sort of reminds me how we tend to prepare, prepare, prepare for some situation. And then, when the time to enjoy the fruits of our preparation, we find a way to push it to the back burner, forget about it, or redirect our attention elsewhere. Thank goodness for young children who remind us to splash around in a puddle or two – we deserve it 😉
That’s a lovely lesson. Does it ring for you like the writing you’re undertaking? All that training, planning, reading and writing, and when the time comes to enjoy the process, we get anxious. Or I do! I shouldn’t project. 🙂
All my best,
Paige
Absolutely! I am always trying to stay one step ahead of myself – or in writing parlance, one story ahead of myself. I am in the middle of writing one story, only to be left thinking about what the next one will be when I should be enjoying the one I am presently immersed in. Alas, that has changed a little bit with my latest project. I have been knee-deep (okay, maybe neck deep) in a story that is the longest I have composed yet (somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 words). I have really tried to remain present in the minds of the characters and their personalities. It has been a very therapeutic (and enjoyable process). It has meant that some of my other writing – like that on my blog – has become a little thinner for now, but it’s what I need 😉 Look at me, hijacking a perfectly innocent and feel-good article with my mindless drivel 🙂 Thanks for sharing your gift, Paige. I really enjoy reading your insightful thoughts when they appear in my reader. Best wishes for an inspired day!
Hey, really nice piece, Paige! Like the George Orwell story about the guy who avoids the puddle in The Hanging – no, not the same at all. But perceptive and observant and generally A1 🙂 Andrew