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Joy

Pure, unadulterated, flat out enjoyment...spraying fountain on a hot day on the boardwalk.

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Ever notice how unadulterated's root word is "adult?" Ever wonder about that? What do you say to children when they say how they can't wait to grow up? Do anything they want? Do you tell them the price of that freedom?

Someone once said that motherhood is like this super secret club and nobody tells you the membership rules until after you join. I think adulthood is like that. Would you have been so anxious to get here, if you had known?

Yes and no.

I tell my daughter, when she says she can't wait to grow up, that adulthood is a lot like childhood. Sometimes we get to choose and sometimes we don't, sometimes we can and sometimes we can't, sometimes we are free and other times someone is looking over our shoulder.

Don't be in a hurry to grow up, I tell her. Enjoy childhood. You'll never get to do it again. I'll never get to see her do it again. It goes much too quickly.

That's why I am so glad to have this moment caught, forever and ever as my daughter would say.

By Julie Pippert
Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography
Limited Edition Prints
www.ArtfulbyNature.com
The Golden Orchid

© 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

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