A Saturday Morning

A couple of days ago Luke got a new bike. He was so anxious for me to watch him ride that he coaxed me outside at 9am on Saturday morning. Still wearing my PJs and hiding behind a pair of big sunglasses I watched him ride around and around and around our driveway. Suddenly he stopped, looking up at a tree we have next to our driveway. "Mom!" he said "We got a new tree! I love it! It has flowers on it!" Literally overnight our previously bare-branched tree had sprouted lovely little white blossoms. This little sign of a much anticipated spring season brought a smile to my face, but Luke's perception made me laugh out loud! So optimistic, so innocent, so positive...

Fast forward a couple of hours...Luke is back outside, enjoying his "new wheels," alone this time. Suddenly I hear him rush into the house and slam and lock the door. He attempts to tell me something very important as evidenced by the intense look of concern on his face and panting breath. "Calm down, I tell him, "What happened?" He composes himself enough to explain..."I was outside riding my bike and a car drove by. There was a man in the car and he SMILED AT ME! I came in the house because I know he was going to come back and kill me!"

Hmmmm...so much for that youthful optimism!!!