To Forest,

#LetterstoForest

When at first, you were wrapped in my skin, I felt you and I knew you but it was not until you broke from the earth and into the air as seeds do--taking your very first breaths that we knew the greatness we had made. You were placed on my chest, and I wrapped my weak, shaking arms around your new slippery skin. So fragile in your miniscule body, I wanted to protect you from the world in which you've just entered. But as your bones grow stronger and move in steadfast determination--I know I cannot protect you from it all...I couldn't even prepare you for it...Instead, I will watch you run wild, discover things, experience your own euphoria and devistation. When you take your first steps, I will be there. When you fall immedately afterward, I will be there. I cannot shield you from everything, and now I realize that I don't want to. I want you to feel alive in your skin, to taste all you ache for-whether you fail or fly. It will never be my job to tell you where to go or what to do, to "don't do this or that"; Follow your heart my sweet boy, run free, play sweetly, and I will follow you, wherever you go. In triumph and dismay, I will be with you.