Earlier this summer someone asked me what I like to photograph the most. Without hesitation, I said "kids".
Kids teach you things without even trying or knowing. And today I was re-taught and reminded that our greatest knowledge comes from what we learn from the interaction of others.
I think it's sad that we have gotten to place and time where we maintain relationships, even form them, between computer screens and text messages. You can get a lot from someone's voice, their tone, their howls. But how often do we even pick up the phone anymore.
Today I met Apple.
For years I had heard about her. So much about her. How cute she was. How her little giggle could lift an entire sitting room. I had even seen photos, many of them. Before meeting her today, I felt like I already knew Apple. Was I ever wrong.
They say a picture says a thousands words, but it wouldn't have mattered how many photos I took of her today, no photo would ever encapsulate her vivacious and inquisitive spirit.
"Watch when she first sees her mom", they said.
I melted.
And that is when her little sounds began. Her giggles, her shreaks. And off she went... down the path on a mission.
I followed.
As I watched her make her way to the ocean, independently doing as she wished, I thought to myself, what a brilliant little individual. How could I have thought that I had any idea who she was before today.
And as it happens, in the presence of children, I lost myself in getting to know her.
As I drove away, struggling to bring myself back from the pile of mush I had just become, I wished that I could have picked up the phone to call her and thank her for everything she had reminded me of. I wish I could have told her how incredible it was to meet her, finally.
