In the early hours of the evening, we sauntered through the familiar yet foreign streets of my home. Ours was the biggest house on the block. I hadn’t remembered that as I stood there and smiled when my eyes met the window of my old room. The faded fireman safety sticker alerting firefighters that a child occupies the room if ever the house was ablaze still there in the corner of my bedroom window. I welcomed visual flashes of cherished misplaced memories.
I stood for a moment observing the driveway. It seemed so long as a child, and the front yard so big. Now, it looked like nothing but a miniature patch of greenery with a modest-sized tree. I remembered how the tree used to loom over me like a gnarled wooden monster. The monolith was the hide and seek counting spot. It was the tree whose leaves I’d enviously gaze through to catch glimpses of the older kids enjoying the hot summer nights when I had to come in early.
It was sobering to walk those familiar streets, glancing in each of the illuminated windows; knowing I’d been in almost all of their rooms as a babysitter or as a friend. I recalled my adolescent mindset. My core ethic hasn’t changed; an unconscious foreshadowing. Perhaps, even a predestined path which brought me to where I find myself today.
But, with each step forward, I carry each happy moment I have collected along my path. They are little undisclosed treasured snippets of happiness I mostly keep to myself. Yet, I’ll share them with the people I pass through my escaping smile.
May the New Year bring the discovery of many new wonders, the warmth of loved ones and the illumination of hope…
Here’s to hindsight 2020!
