Smile

She chases after the neighbor's dog, who has decided, in his tail wagging ways, to spend  part of the afternoon with her. It makes me smile.

She holds a basketball,almost as big as she is, in her arms and rolls it a few inches away. It makes me smile.

She runs down the driveway, tilted towards the ground, her fall and tears inevitable. But soon it is a forgotten moment of unhappiness. It makes me smile.

She climbs up the rocky cliff in the backyard, really just a five foot  hill. And when she finishes, she does it again. She beams with pride. It makes me smile.

She eats as I do, two fisted and in a great hurry. It makes me smile.

She picks up a wrench, then sits in her daddy's lap as he tries to assemble something that momentarily defies completion. She says one word to him, "help". It makes me smile.

She calls my name. It makes me smile.

She picks up a pebble and throws it into a puddle. It makes me smile.

Her day is a thousand moments each one typical, every one spectacular. And whatever she does makes me smile.

She is my oasis.. This little girl who makes me smile.

And she is wholly unaware of the mad swirling universe just beyond her gaze. It makes me smile.