It was Wednesday when I got back to Hawai’i from China, took a few days rest, next Monday I went with Terry to watch Sonny taking swimming lesson.

There were 9 kids, age from 6 to 13, only two kids looks younger than Sonny.  He was a slow swimmer, but it seems didn’t bother him at all. Sometimes he played and talked with other kids, sometimes he just practiced his diving alone, either way, he was relax and happy in the pool. He was himself, didn’t change a bit even in different environment.

Their teacher asked them to trading water for 3 minutes, other kids were quite and trying to keep their heads above the water at the same spot. We only could hear Sonny’s voice, his silly babbling, ” Ho! I can’t hold any longer, Ho! I’ll drown, I’ll die, …..” He babeled that 3 whole minutes, I even could hear a trace of his laugh when he complained. His teacher just laughed at him, the silly boy.

That night in the bed, I thought about his time in the pool, said to him, ” Sonny, you have a free spirit.”

He asked :” Is a free spirit like a ghost, can go wherever he wants ?”

“Sort of .”

He asked again, ” He can even running around in the coffee land naked ?”

” Yes.”

Next day, he asked :” Mom, can I run around in coffee land naked ?”

I told him, ” Sure, go ahead.”

So, he took off his cloth, ran around the houses, bamboo tree, played like this alone for a long time. I was doing laundry, saw him running between buildings, so happy with his new game. It made me wonder what his feeling was, maybe a feeling  of freedom.

That week, he had to play his naked game every day. I’m glad, he had a good time with his game. I wish this silly and playful little boy will always live inside of his heart, amuse himself once a while even when he is a grown man or an old man.