I went out for a quick run today and as I rounded the first quarter mile I was overcome by a familiar scent. It had been well before Katrina the last time I remember it but for a moment it took me even further back. As I look up to see the heavily flower-laden mimosa bough hanging over the track, I flashed back to my backyard the summer we moved into our house, no longer rented but owned by my parents. I am ten years old again and the sound of my mom's voice fills my ears. "Go outside and play", she always said. Coincidentally, it was always go outside, because she loathed a dirty house but that's another story for another day. I am sitting under the Mimosa tree, taking in the mild, sweet smell of the pink flowers. My hands are muddy and I have picked some perfect sized leaves from one of the bushes in our yard. I have carefully shaped and kneaded the mud into the yummiest looking mud pies anyone has ever laid eyes on. Next the pies go onto the big leaves and sit in the sun to cook. While the pies are roasting in the mid-day sun, I am off to the ditch to build a damn with my friends from the neighborhood (Donna, Bert, Marvin, Cindy, Lee and others). There are some pretty cool things in the ditch and that ditch which seemed like the grand canyon to me then is small now that I am grown, but oh the times we had playing in the ditch and then running through the field to one of our many "forts" and later to grab the football and play a game in the street or shoot baskets at Donna's house. We didn't go home until dark and if school was out, well after dark. But, (my sisters and brother will remember this well) when it was time to come in, it was through the garage, dropping all but our undies at the door and straight to the bath. The scent of Mimosa today, reminds me how simple our lives were then and every now and then what we wouldn't give to go back to that simplicity when the only care in the world was whether the mud-pies overcooked. My mom hated that tree and eventually it was cut down to make room for a gigantic satellite dish. I will always remember that tree. I am not a parent, but if I were, I would try to take time to share these simple things with my children, to teach them different ways to have fun and to use their imagination because in the imagination anything is possible.... and it's just dirt, it will wash off!! :-) Peace -T
