A Life of Wonder

There’s a question: What were you doing when you were your happiest as a child? I used the question to take me to an answer I had long forgotten about, which is playing with animals. Digging deeper, it wasn’t just being with animals that I loved, it was imagining with them. Inviting them, as co-conspirators, into the games I played and endowing them with special and sometimes magical qualities. Their enthusiasm and willingness to play matched my own.

As I got older, I associated myself with poetry and business. Yet this was neither my origin point, nor where I was happiest.

As you may know, I grew up with more animals than you might imagine a city kid would: ferrets, rabbits, snakes, cats, dogs, a small pig, hamsters and more. Now, we have no pets. I seldom see animals except once a day when we pat the neighbors dog. Realizing how important they were in my early life, and their absence now, is like noticing silence–the absence of laughter, the sound of trains, and the comforting cadence of the rain.