They only come out at night...

They only come out at night…and weekends. As night falls and darkness begins to consume the sky, I start to see them come out - one by one. Families. They fill the parks and safe street corners – daddies and little babies; mommies and their kids. There is a place near my apartment – a simple safe space in front of a bakery shop. Parents and children gather together and – oddly enough - it seems to be about this heavenly bakery shop. A bakery shop filled with cookies and cakes. Its wonderful smells fill the night air, and just like moths to a flame – the little children come. I have seen them gather in front of this shop with their little faces pressed against the glass, staring hungrily at the yummy bakery goods. Laughing and giggling while inhaling the sweet heavenly aroma. They point to their favorite items and squeal with delight. Parents sit scattered among the few provided benches watching in amusement while their kids joyfully play and covet the bakery goods. All the while, the air smells so dang good that my mouth waters. But I cannot pull myself away from the picturesque scene of happy children just to avoid temptation. And I am not alone in this struggle - one by one, the parents fall victim to their child’s plea for sweets. And one by one, they are sucked into that little heavenly place.

I had made my way to an available bench and sat down. Although, I could not understand their language – I understood them. I had watched a father who was still dressed in his work suit, kneel before his infant daughter and play obsessively with her squeaky toy. The father was having more fun than the infant. His face had hard tired lines from working too hard and too long. I recognized the wariness in him; the same wariness I see in so many people, myself included; the same wariness from believing that if I work hard enough, I will have a good life. But sometimes I realize I lost part of a good life by working too hard.

The pendulum will shift for me when I get back to the United States. But I leave so many here who will never see the flip side.  

“To be human is to laugh and to play - play is natural to us and natural to the creative process. It's only through our formal education that we begin to doubt the "seriousness" of play. When this happens, we begin to lose a bit of ourselves, including our confidence and a bit of our humanity.” ~Garr Reynolds