Childhood.

 

This is the picture of a perfect child. She is perfect, with her frilly dress and ruffled socks, holding a plastic bucket that used to contain peanut butter. She's perfect. That is to say, she is perfectly skilled at being a child. She is not perfectly skilled at paying attention, otherwise she would not be running toward her parents as they leave Lincoln Park without her. She is not perfectly skilled at staying upright on bicycles, judging by the band-aid on her knee. She is not perfectly skilled at doing what she's told--she has bangs because she cut her own hair with pink kiddie scissors not too long before this photo was taken, as well as the hair of a Precious Moments doll.

But those are the characteristics and incidents which make her a child, which make her beloved and precious in the eyes of her parents, and sometimes even her brothers, because it means she is not yet old enough to always know what's right. These are the things that teach her and will help her form her world because all of those imperfect behaviors are paired with other lovely things--like twenty-six carefully crafted drawings of Native Americans with exquisite details, like picking her mother bouquets of dandelions, like dutifully playing a Wise Man in the Christmas play despite her fierce wish to be Mary (or at least an angel), and like whimsically playing in the park all day and paying no attention to time because she is safe, and free, and loved. She is perfectly a child because she is not afraid.

Today I am thankful for my childhood. I am thankful for the freedom I experienced and that whatever artistic endeavor I pursued, everybody told me to go for it, even if it meant putting a kitschy tile mosaic on a hexagonal coffee table. I am thankful for years of playing with dolls and making up stories for them. I am thankful for living in a family that allowed my imagination to roam the house like a living creature.

So here are a few random photos of my childhood. And yes, it's also #ThrowbackThursday #TBT so this fits pretty well.

A. Baby Katie! B. Me and my friend Micah on a rocking horse named Misty. C & D. Awkward family photos.

End day 14. Up next, parents!