up the creek with water wings

So I was reading one of those personal interest stories on the Internet. A 5 year-old girl, named Hannah Klamecki and presumed drowned was found after two days. She and her grandfather had been swimming and were swept away by a current. The grandfather drowned and the little girl, who had water wings on, somehow made it to shore down river and pulled herself out of the water onto the shore. She found some raspberries to eat and was wandering around naked for two days, being scratched by poison ivy with her feet all cut up and imbedded with thorns. Imagine the joy of her family to discover she was alive. Imagine the tears and embraces that greeted her. Probably ice cream too.

Resilient girl. Was she already so in love with life that she marshaled up all her courage and common sense and kept pushing forward? Did she think about what she had already lost and what she could lose still or is that beyond a 5 year olds’ ability? It had to be so hard to keep going when she was so scared. And so very alone. What makes some people push on through the blisters and thorns while others sit on the rocky shoals and wait and some just let the current take them away?

There is a little girl or boy like one of those I mention inside of us all. Please let me be the one who is frightened but keeps moving forward, who sustains loss but finds raspberries and armed with only a pair of water wings and a lust for life, pushes tenaciously and ever forward and eventually finds peace and comfort on a loving shore.

Welcome home, Hannah.