I saw her on a walk to begin with. She had the excitement that I used to contain as a little girl. She thought she had known me from before. I did not recognize her because I had said “goodbye” to my little girl years ago. I could see she was still in touch with her inner child and I became intrigued.

The next time we met was under the Mulberry tree in the meadows. We picked a few Mulberries and I warned her that another neighbor friend had told me that there was little bugs on the mulberries. She mentioned that would just be a bit of added protein and popped the mulberry right into her mouth. I immediately loved her when she said that because I knew her little girl had grown up in the country just as mine had.

The ability to choose between what was important and what was petty was a lesson I learned while growing up in the country. The beauty of growing up on a farm reinforced the belief that joy was found in simplicity, not perfection.

I used to wake up overflowing with joy. I walked around with a smile glued to my lips. This was not because I lived in a perfect home. This was just because that was the Spirit that God had given me as a child.

Where had that joy gone? I thought back to my life as a child and realized that I was super creative and quite the entrepreneur.  I had a play house out in the garage. The basement was transformed into a restaurant complete with a menu when my friends came over. My dolls all got taught about Jesus when I had church in the living room of my house. I was always up to something and many times it was things I did by myself because I was the youngest and no one had time, or wanted to play with me. So I would play with myself and I don’t remember regretting a minute of the time I spent playing.

I began to wonder where has the joy of my childhood gone to? Is it necessary to be so serious about this “adulting” thing we all have to do?

I eat food to feed my body. I read the Bible and go to Church to feed my Spirit but what am I doing to nurture the inner child which so bubbled over with joy?

In the Bible it says the Joy of the Lord is my strength. So how do I connect to that to draw from that fountain of life?

I think that my new friend and I may be trying to find the same source of joy. In other talks with her I have found that we are both trying to cipher through the pain of childhood to rescue that little girl who somehow got lost along the way.

It is like we both decided that the path we were walking on was causing blisters on our heart. I am excited about this journey of friendship.  It is going to be a magnificent adventure, I can feel it in my heart.