I see a girl with a childlike heart, a lover of the simple sublime. The girl is an artist who paints with a palette of myriad virtues: innocence, trust, and hope.

I see a girl with blue marble eyes as clear as the morning sky. She kicks her shoes into the grass and dances until her lungs gasp for breath, and even then still she twirls felicitously.

I see a girl coming awake with passion that for a lifetime has hibernated, wondering what to make of such a gift. To embrace everything or nothing at all; people or things or busyness or success, the choices that mark the path of the happy life. And I pray that the girl chooses wisely.

I see a girl on the brink of womanhood. She stands in the doorway between carelessness and wondrous risk, timidly gazing into gardens greater than any she knows. I long for the girl to come run with me, but the sky is big and the air is crisp and once you’re in it you can’t go back. I admire the girl, and envy her.

I see a girl waiting for tomorrow, but tomorrow is here already.