The House of Other Children

When I was in college, I volunteered at a group home for children living with HIV and AIDS. It was a huge, older two story home in the heart of the city. I believe there were 18 permanent residents there. They were wards of the state, yet they were not in foster care. Their mothers had either abandoned them, were imprisoned and a shocking large amount of them were deceased. These were the children that were born unto this world with HIV. They were, for the most part, children unknown to our society.
One little girl, maybe 3 or 4, with chocolate brown hair...wild & curly and eyes the size, color & depth of a never-ending cup of coffee with cream and sugar, immediately took to me.
Lol, I'll never forget her exclaiming 'You gotta bug on you! I get it!' and fervantly pinching & pulling at a sticking-out kinda mole I had on my neck area. (This ultimately led to the removal of this mole, but that's another story;) She was helping me, protecting me.
But having an ever greater impact upon me & countless others with whom I have shared this with were the words of wisdom that flew from her mouth one sunny afternoon.
I had her in my arms and her legs straddled my waist. I would bend over, throwing her backwards & upside down, with my arms crisscrossed over her upper back and shoulder blades as to avoid disturbing her AZT pack wrapped around her mid-section and then I would scoop her back up again. Each time we would squeal......'Weeeeeeee,' 'Whoooooaaaa,' 'Ewwwwww' with great delight at our two-person make-do roller-coaster ride.
Finally she says 'OK, Stop!' and I did... fearful that I had made her dizzy or woozie or what-have you. She then smiled , cocked her curly head to the side & said 'Now, throw me up waaaaay high'
I lifted her up quickly and brought her back down, never allowing her to slip my grasp. Her brows crossed & she quickly barked 'No! Throw Me!'
I laughed, 'Baby, I can't just throw you...what if I don't catch you? I worry that you could get seriously hurt...'
As I rambled on about what we could do & couldn't do & such, she took her two fat little little hands and smooshed my face between them... as in a polite, gentle gesture to shut me up.
'You silly adults...don't you guys know anything? Life should be fun!'
Cupid's lips pucked up & jutted out in a toddlers' pout.
Smooshy-faced, I smiled back at her.
'Throoooow meeeeee. It'll beeeeee-a-eeeee ok! Life should be fun, you know?'
So, I did.
I threw her higher & higher.
Over & over again.
... and it was fun.
May we all learn from the mouth of babes.