It was mud puddles and the defiant smearing when Mom said no. It was all that stayed when the hose shut off in some broken piece of driveway, couple steps from Fifth Avenue. It was superhero undies and a cheap t-shirt. Wasn’t it first barefoot days of summertime when Spring chill finally wandered off? Things were simple then, time was simple, nothing mattered but finishing breakfast as fast as you could to get outside, then staying. Nothing mattered except those last precious ten minutes when light faded and the sound of your name shouted from two blocks away echoed through the neighborhood, the call of home. Somewhere along the way things get complicated, we lose sight of ourselves, distracted by technology and some incessant pull towards what we’re told success means. Somewhere along the way we step over the mud puddles, avoid them to keep our shoes clean, we complain about summertime and the heat that rises, worry about air conditioning bills and the newest iPhone that may be coming out soon.
It was best friends out of younger siblings, heroes out of big sisters that always knew shit we did not. It was the streetlights and the little pools of orange in all those rows of night, the way our feet never knew pain, even when running down late July asphalt. I miss who I once was, miss who we were, standing after some perfect dappled sunlight, waiting in the gloaming, for the call back home.
Miss who I once was,
I miss the simplicity.
Now it’s all so much.
Haiku on Life by Tyler Knott Gregson
Song of the Day
MY NEW BOOK IS HERE!!! ILLUMINATION is available to snuggle up with in your loving arms. I will love you forever and ever if you’d give it an order. Click the button below and wham bam, you can choose where to order it from! (For International orderers, check your local Amazon!)
This is how I’m feeding my family, how I’m able to keep creating art and reaching out to all of you beautiful souls, so please, if you’re not yet part of our extremely rad exclusive community of Light Chasers, you can sign up for less than a sugary latte a month. Let’s hang out, it’s time. If not, I love you all the same.
Just a quick thank you for everyone who is subscribing. If you dig what I’m doing, please, share it with anyone and everyone you can think of by clicking the button below.
Same. However, we’re moving and every time I take a load to the new house, there are kids playing together in the street or running around the neighborhood with sticks. There’s usually one house with six or seven bikes out front because that’s where everyone is. It feels like moving back to my childhood, and I hope my kids embrace the beauty of it.
I too, remember the days of the street lights coming on as the call of curfew, roaming the town with my friends on our two-wheeled transportation, and not ever having a thought about safety as we do today. I was in college when Jacob Wetterling was abducted in a town 15 minutes to the west, and that all changed. I miss the simpler times, uncomplicated by fears of people intent on doing harm and the constant media barrage of all the negativity in the world. I'm looking forward to hiking and not caring about keeping my shoes clean in a place where I can escape from it all for a while.