Have you ever wondered at what age we truly start to understand the meaning of trust? I wonder if it's the first time that trust is broken. Yesterday and today I took a walk at Cook Park. I noticed that as I would pass a child on his bike or a little boy playing on the equipment, they would look up at me and say hi. One little one even blew me a kiss this afternoon! As adults we're typically not that quick to acknowledge someone we don't know as we pass by. In fact, cultural norm seems to be to look down and not make eye contact. Why is this? I mean, I do it too. I attribute it to my shyness. Even as a kid I think I was the one who would cling to my mom or dad's legs when anyone tried to talk to me. Then again, I do remember writing lines in kindergarten many days during recess for talking too much in class. As we get older, we go through circumstances that cause us to put up walls of protection as an attempt to hedge our hearts from more unnecessary pain. We enter into relationships automatically assuming that we're going to get hurt. In truth, at some point we will get hurt. We're human and although it's not intentional, we do at times hurt the people we love causing us to take a step back from that trust we worked so hard to build. I guess I just wish sometimes we could go back to the playground days...you know, when boys told you that you were ugly because deep down they really liked you. Oh wait, I guess life was confusing back then too:)