morning walks.

I was walking to work this morning. I love walking to work. It means that my morning hasn't been rushed. It often means that I've gotten to eat breakfast sitting down. It means that I spend 40 minutes just thinking about my day, life, the weather, the weekend, the flowers, friends, family, music, the podcast I might be listening to... And it affords no end of opportunities to overhear conversations, those walking conversations that you only catch snippits of. Most often these conversations involve children - fully using their outdoor voices.

This morning I passed a father walking his three school-aged children, and the dog, presumably on the way to school. The older brother, aged 11ish, was teasing his younger sister, aged 9ish, about the boy she liked. And her insistence about how much she did NOT like this boy, only served to prove that indeed, she did think said boy was pretty great. Dad got in on the fun and her protestations became even louder. I could only smile, remembering my first crush, probably around her age, and being simultaneously intrigued and vaguely distrustful of that weird thing called "boy."  I hope this young girl's crush is as good-natured as my first one was. I hope she also learns to continue to be cautiously intrigued and slightly distrustful of that thing called boy - it's a helpful first reaction as you age and can easily lose your heart to just a crush. That being said, when you're really lucky, those crushes, sometimes, turn into something pretty special.