the girl with the rain boot

Today Annikah and I went for walk to the Post Office (an excuse really to WALK outside as it is beautiful- no coat needed, just a sweat shirt thank you). Well, I guess I went for a walk and Anni really rode along in her little Zooper chariot (as Jason likes to say, he wishes he had one and someone to push him around the city, I try to talk to him about this but it is useless, I’ll let him have his “chariot” dream but I ain’t pushing it..). Anyway, we were headed back to our place for lunch when we went by the Waldorf school about a block away. There were a bunch of kids outside playing so I crossed the street so Anni could watch them make delightful noises as they chased each other around. As we were cruising by I noticed a little girl sitting all by herself on the stump of a log. She had a white hat that was stained with mud from the damp play lot and wavy chestnut hair. When I looked closely I realized she had taken one of her pink and purple rain boots off and was scooping up the wood chips on the ground. My first thought was “ah, how sad, she is by herself and why on earth would she being doing that?” Then I had a moment of panic as I thought “What if Anni becomes that girl- the loner who collects dirty wood chips in her boot?”
We stopped to watch the kids and Annikah started squealing at the kids and then looking at them as if she was annoyed they did not understand her clearly commutative speech and reply. They were too busy in kid world, running back and forth, seemingly going nowhere and having a blast. Then I looked back at the girl with the boot. With her boot stuffed to the top she got up and walked over to a group of kids I had not yet noticed. These kids were attempting to fill the inside of a tire with the wood chips. One boy seemed to be the leader of the group as he hollered out orders to the others. The rest of the kids clumsily grasped at wood chips with their hands. It was sort of like watching a very inefficient assembly line. As fast they grabbed them and stood up to deliver them most of the chips would fall out. Then up marches our girl with the boot! She confidently sauntered over and proceeded to dump her boot into the collective pot. Utter amazement came over the other kids faces as they saw her brilliance at accomplishing the goal. Even the leader of the pack was impressed.
So upon further reflection I decided I hope Anni does become a her own unique version of the girl with the boot- defying convention, not afraid to stand alone, an innovator of sorts!