Running Like Children

I resumed my tutoring jobs this semester. One of the families I work for is French, and the adorable and perfect daughters are 7 and 10 years old. I went to pick them up from their talented, artistic, French children lessons before taking them home to tutor English. I walk into the courtyard at the neighborhood activity center and see the oldest, who is bilingual in English. I greeted her with “bises,” as is custom (the first time I met her, she stood there oddly with her head tilted up in anticipation...little did I know that kids are supposed to greet adults with cheek kisses, too). She told me that she and her sister were playing a game of “cache-cache” (hide-and-go-seek) while they were waiting for me. I started walking around the planters with bushes in the center of the complex, calling her name. I saw the little one’s tiny form, and watched her hesitate as she recognized who was calling her in the dark. She then proceeded to call out my name and perform a running jump full-force into my arms, an act of acrobatic skill which she sealed by attacking my cheeks with kisses. I held her tightly. I can’t get this moment out of my mind. It’s hard to understand why adults don’t respond this way to others, when it is evidently part of our nature. We are inhibited, cold, jaded. If we could only be like children, running into each others arms with reckless abandon.