No boundaries

The girl at three and a half refuses to see limits. Parents try to set deadlines for eating, bathing, sleeping.

They warn her how the brick she's holding in her small hand might smash her toes

But the girl unbounded will not yield.

Watch her go down a flight of stairs. Her arms flail and her legs pop. She leads with her head. Her shins have bruises from flinging her body on outdoor metal furniture or basement walls.

No one will keep the spirit down. No one.

You can watch her and feel envious - she has no fear. And yet, it exasperates you. I mean how do you push back the wind?

She will find what she's looking for. And she will simply refuse to see a reason to oppose the urge that thrusts her forward.

"But I want it," she says, and she means it. A few days ago, she was told that she'll lose T.V. if she didn't listen. "I don't want T.V.," she said. Who would argue with the force of those words. I'm not up to the task.

Sure, the power comes from a child's mind that vaguely knows it really doesn't have the answers. And, yes, she's still too young to know of limits, of fences, of rules.

Yet that power also brings with it this unbridled sense of joy - the kind that makes us yearn to be near a child. And you want somehow to keep that kernal of desire burning like a red hot coal as her body and brain matures ... the bruises go away ... her stride is controlled.