I sit here in Spreckles Park, picking at the grass – determined to make the largest possible pile of grass confetti. The curiosity of an ant beside my left foot motivates him to explore what to him must seem like an enormous mountain. He begins his journey at the base of the pile, grass tumbling down around him, but all the while he is intent on achieving his goal. About three quarters of the way up he pauses to clean himself, momentarily forgetting or maybe not caring about the task at hand, but once he gives himself a check over and decides he is decent he swiftly returns to his treacherous crusade. At long last the ant reaches the top flailing his legs in the air above him in triumph. He then proceeds to cautiously start on his way down and then eventually return home.
I then turn my attention to the neatly planted flowerbeds. A bee is humming around a clump of marigolds, deciding on which one he will land. He contemplates for a moment and then decides to land on one of the three orange flowers in the bunch. He hovers over it for a moment, perhaps having second thoughts about his choice of flower, but then continues to land gracefully. Only then is he still enough for me to notice the thick dust pasted on his legs and how the sun perfectly reflects off of what appears to be tiny crystals from its high perch.
I am suddenly brought back to my surroundings by the impromptu cries of joy of small children playing on the playground. A girl had just jumped from the swing set from the highest point and was now giggling with delight. Now the girl and her friends are racing to the jungle of fun colorful adventures guaranteed to be had by anyone who is under the age of seven. A strawberry blonde boy, clad in a baby blue shirt decorated with marvel comic characters dives into the depths of the caterpillar tunnel, smiling from ear to ear. Thirty seconds later he emerges from the other side, the enormous grin plastered across his face is now even wider than it had been prior to his adventure in the tunnel. He races to the slide, throws up both of his arms and cheers as gravity takes him freely back to earth.