Friday, June 29, 2007

You put your right foot in.....


When you wake up and you are five and the sun is shining through the dirty venetian blinds in little exacto-knife slivers of light across your bedsheets, it's morning time. A new day, long as ever. The sun shines for half your life.

Your eyes pop open, a wide mouthed bottle slurping down the morning. The cereal bowl is good and cold, no matter what the flavor, and then the bowl is empty and you're and out the door, calico dress and bare feet flying.

Pedal the pink spider bike with the fluorescent streamers and poker carded spokes ninety to nothing down the hill. Dig in the dirt. Scratch your name in a tree. Scoop tadpoles from the birdbath. Hide in the trees and wallop "falling stuff " at passing cars. Catch a firefly with a hangover and poke him in a mayonaisse jar. Play so hard you forget to go tinkle and have to ride home, perched like a lady, cross legged, on the pink spider bike..... ninety to nothin'.....

When you are five, you live hard. You chase boys around the trees until your lungs are a boom-box and the breath choo-chooing from your mouth is cold. You forget to brush your velvet teeth. You wear knots in your hair. You have dirty feet. You clean up good in the morning.

When you are five, you are free.

And the price you pay for freedom is bed-time.


Thank you justme, for the title!

35 comments:

Oceanshaman said...

The sage is shy and humble- to the world he seems confusing.

Men look to him and listen.

He behaves like a little child.

--- from verse Forty-Nine of the Tao Te Ching

kj said...

singleton, this was my childhood too. and my daughters somewhat. i'm so sure about today, though. today stangers and technology challenge this free spirit freedom in too many places.

a depressing observation on an otherwise good night...

Sue said...

No, I was restricted, sheltered, cosetted, manipulated, dominated. No such fun for me, not till I was 19! but it's good to read...

Scott from Oregon said...

Too close to the bone this evening, my dear...

JR's Thumbprints said...

Oh to be five again! Still young and pure and innocent. Only with experience does the world change. Only with experience does the price become steep.

Me said...

That was adorable. Too bad I don't remember being five :(

Say g'day to Paige for me :)

Much <3!

singleton said...

oceans...I don't know Tao Te Ching, but I'm going to learn more along the way.... but I see you somehow understood exactly where I was going with this....
Thank you, and peace...

KJ...how true that there are more things now to stifle the little spirit, but when you are five, you are alive! And everything is techni-color....
hope your evening was tainted!

sue....thanks. I forget how lucky we were, not stifled by too many rules, just the biggies. We were allowed to paint on the walls and pretend.....And I still love to do both! peace....

singleton said...

scott....I understand. And then so do you. Peace, friend

jr..I lost your link with the blogger transfer, up you'll go again! And you're so right. I just hate to see it when the steep price is that thirst for life....that imagination ... laughter..that fierce belief in the new day....

orhan....ahhh, but you remember other times and tales, and five or fifty five, I was just doing the "spirit" chat here....
Peace, our friend, wishing you great peace. We're thinking of you, and sweet SLB, will be coming round the bend again soon....It'll all be good, "in the end, peace wins"......

Gill said...

That price is paid here daily. My two do hard time come 7:30.
I remember freedom. Not caring how things looked, only how things felt. It felt great to run around and get dirty from playing all day!

eric1313 said...

My sweet singing friend,
siren of the south sea.
with poetry you prove
that no journey is
ever in vain

because
the stars
gamble too
when they fall
toward the sunrise
and the broken land;
Well they knew the risks.
Another day down and risen
again--

its all music
its all a beautiful gift

it has to be friend
--
I love this incarnation of the Hokey Pokey. You capture that total carefree child feeling well--especially the chase, the eternal chase around the feet of trees. I remember that so well. I see it and it feels good on this sunny Saturday. Thank you for the reminder of youth. And of course, good mornig to you!

skinnylittleblonde said...

As always Sister...beautiful writings. ILYSVFM.
Five just might have been one of the best years of my life. LOL.

Unknown said...

I'm going to be a father for the first time later this year, and it's good to recollect what it was that made childhood magical.

Personally, although I had a happy childhood full of memories that will never fade, the certainty of adulthood, and the love I share with my wife, just about pips it.

Beautifully worded recollections - "the price we pay is bedtime" is a phrase fit to adorn the doorway of any nursery.

Helene said...

that was great! I hope that is how my children will remember being 5. Its not how I lived at 5 though!

Funny that 'the price you pay for freedom is bed-time' when you are a child and as an adult you covet your sleeptime!

singleton said...

blue....Nothing better than that freedom!

eric..
"because
the stars
gamble too
when they fall
toward the sunrise
and the broken land;
Well they knew the risks.
Another day down and risen
again--"
You can't get much more prophetic than that, Man.....
You reading my mind lately?

skinny...yeah, if it weren't for the yellow butterfly, and the best that yet's to come....
ILYSVVM

singleton said...

jd...Congratulations on your little one! May your nursery be blessed with magic and peace and laughter....
and so your lives......
:)

kate...I imagine your little ones will have a box chock full of five year old memories to cherish.
Peace and laughter, girl

unknown said...

singleton,
What a great post! If I close my yes, I am right there with you. My sons were privy to that kind of childhood as well. I just hope my grnddaughters will be, too. Great blog, I am sure I will be back.
:-)

eric1313 said...

no
prophecy really
isn't my gig, I think

unless you keep telling
me so... i think

or I'll just read the wind
and the smoke signals,
saying the peace
when I need it

puff

clink!

Busy today, I have to pay bills and get money somehow. I might habe to get a job. Lord help us all--I have to try and find the grace to live like everyone else! That shouldn't kill me, and its not and it won't. You know how things are, friend.

But I hope to write later. Maybe I should wrap these little bundles together and complete or just frame them up niecely. That's what I mean by inspiration, when I read stuff and all I want to do is write poetry. It is powerful. Creative smoke signals from a new friend who knows the power.
peace power

eric1313 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
eric1313 said...

You are fast, lady Singleton. I didn't even have the right pic up yet! But glad for your visit all the same. I just hope you read the revised one. You know how shody I am right off the get.

Momentary Madness said...

Q:How do you make a Venetian blind?
A: throw sand in his eyes.
Beautiful anecdote; the energy of being five.
Y;-) Paddy

singleton said...

eric.... Middle of the night roaming, wandering, timing! It was great! And ewwwwwwww.......that picture!

paddy...awww, so nice to see you comin' round.

Peace boys

robkroese said...

My 5 year (known as "Speed Pony") regularly plays so hard she forgets to tinkle.

eric1313 said...

Hahaha
My midnight rambler friend.
Glad for your words in all ways
that I read them. Talk to you soon.

singleton said...

diesel...LOL! I still do it!

eric...ahhhh, to the wee hours!

SHE said...

made me cry.

-should be an entitlement for children everywhere; memories like those

not hiding in fear
not drowning in stuff

just living life between the sweet dreams.

singleton said...

she...
"just living life between the sweet dreams"...
that is too beautiful

Should be like that for all.
peace~love

Shrink Wrapped Scream said...

This is what we gave to our children when we moved away from London.. they arrived as City kids, unused to space, freedom, waves or caves. It is the biggest delight of my life now, watching them as they run wild, carefree and full of adventure.

justacoolcat said...

That is why I will forever be this many.

singleton said...

shrink....Oh, don't you love it. The freedom of the sun, the dirt, long unmowed grass, anthills and best of all....
imagination. To be free!

justacoolcat....
That is why you will forever be suchacoolcat!
peace~love all

phaseoutgirl said...

Yeah, to be five again, without a care in the world, all we had to do was follow what we were asked to do, albeit sulkily sometimes, yet we could dance with the sun and catch dust balls flying through our fingertips, and know how it is to live.....

then, once again it is bedtime and we lose ourselves in our stories at night.... and our dreams are full of beauty, nightmares are far away... although sometimes the dark can be scary!

thanks for bringing me back a bit of my childhood!

C

singleton said...

phaseout....it's sad how much we lose, growing up, how we settle for so much less.....and forget about "dancing with the sun"....
It's nice to remember, to visit, that spirit again, and maybe, just maybe, reclaim a little of it!

peace for you sweet girl

Jacob said...

I love that picture! Now I wish I had a fet footish.

wuh?

singleton said...

Gawpo....That would be the sisters and me....and we all have shoe phobias....collect 'em like there's no tomorrow and then run around barefooted or in 99 cent flip-flops!

SpongyBones said...

I plan on staying free until I'm 55!

singleton said...

spongy....
I'm planning on staying free 4-ever!