Adrianna and Her Joy of Life

 When she was a little girl my daughter could embrace life with gusto, reveling in its simple and uncomplicated pleasures. No matter the storm clouds that might be waiting, no matter the stress that might manifest in her life due to complicated familial relationships, the shuttling back and forth between two parents that lived across the country, she would still always find a moment that would fill her with unabashed joy for simply being alive. It was a gift, and it was contagious.

One moment that will always stick with me that perfectly illustrates this is when I took her to the roller-skating rink, something we did often during the summers when she was with me. She’d skate around the oval making new friends and connecting with old, bopping to the music, partaking in the hokey pokey or limbo contests, making sure to stop every few laps to make sure I wasn’t getting bored.

I was never bored.

I had just watched her skating around with abandon while TLC’s “Waterfalls” was playing, a huge grin on her face, her eyes alive, swaying to the music without a care. She noticed me noticing her and smiled even bigger. She did one more lap and when the song ended stopped and sat next to me and said, “I just love listening to the music and skating really fast, I feel so alive and free and wonderful” and she meant it. Then a new song started up with a bass beat I could feel in my bones and that rattled the bench we were sitting on, and she was off again.

Still smiling.