The Corner

Here we sat.

We were diligently working on the Minnie Mouse puzzle for the umpteenth time. The monotony of the pieces coming together and trying, once more, to teach my daughter what "the corner" meant.  And when it didn't resonate, I echoed in Spanish "... En la esquina, dulcita" to which she responded in kind "en la a'kina?"

She still didnt understand as I lightly touched the edges of the chest-turned-coffee table centered on our family room floor. Mira. 

Corner. Esquina. Corner. Esquina.

She reached for the center and confidently touched the table while saying "a'kina"!?

I smiled.  Too weary to continue with a lesson that could wait, the fatigue of a nightly run washed over me.

The run was short.  6 miles trying to beat the sunset washing over the horizon of a warmly lit desert landscape.  

I was in love.

Do you remember what it was like to fall in love? 

I fell in love with each step that raced against the dark night sky that wanted to capture me in a moonlight glow.

I fell in love with the sunshine waving its goodbye as stars begged for a peak at the runnners, walkers and bike riders who had long awaited this cool, still, hour.

I fell in love, once more, with this transitional time. And though we had been in love in our own ways, many times and many years over, it was like I was falling in love all over again.

I can't remember anything like it.

I felt unburdened. 

And it was the only thought that raced in my mind as I raced home to greet the evening. 

I felt unburdened.

I can't explain it, fully.

Perhaps there was freedom in that transition from day to night. It could have been the need and desire to get away, to get outside, to get alone, to get weightless, unhindered by the corners that can be so confusing.

I am like a confusing corner piece, aren't I? 

It seems clear just where I belong, to everyone that sees all the pieces laid out.  And yet it is in the angle I find myself torn between two sides, both equally befitting and yet I am certain to be a more obvious fit to one side than the other.

I might be just as confused as my daughter. 

Corner. Esquina. Corner. Esquina.

One day, we'll figure it out.