happy ☺

I was a wild little kid.

The house I grew up in bordered a forested area I'd cut through and after a short walk be creekside. A mile by the creek would lead to the river, where I'd spent many days. Days riverside, I'd bring a book and a notebook, and sit and read and write. I had a grey and black tabby and sometimes he'd come with me, sitting with me for a while, then running off into the trees to play. He'd usually be back to walk home with me.

One early summer some of the neighbor boys and I put up a tire swing, and on especially hot days, the book would be forgotten for taking long swings into the river and sunning my clothes dry out on the rocks. I was always barefoot. We'd get clay off the river banks and make sad attempts at pottery that always turned into mud fights and crazy clay stuck all in my curls.

The Georgia sun is wonderful, and the sounds of the water rushing and the cicadas are the most soothing sounds to me still. We used to eat the mulberries right off the trees, and I'd go home with my fingers stained red and purple, and the pages I wrote too.

I think these perfect southern summer days are the reason that warm weather and nature make me so happy. I can't lie. I live in South Florida now, and this is in part because when the weather drops below 75 I start getting chilly, and when it's below 65, I no longer want to go outside [though I can be tempted during the fall for hikes in the mountains because, I mean, who can help by love the changing foliage] I love the sun on my skin, the wind in my  hair, the rain even.

I love soft grass and being barefoot in it. But hence the barefoot hippie title.

Get outdoors and climb a tree or something ;)
Get happy!