"The Rain of Love"

In so many ways, I wish I had brought my camera to our Growing Colorado Kids “free day” today.
Growing Colorado Kids is a nonprofit started by my friend Denise with the goal to allow refugee children and adolescents to continue ideas of sustenance and food that originated in their cultures back home. The children that are in the program have been displaced by international conflict, have resettled in Colorado, and this is one way they can contribute to their community while also growing and gardening—a piece of their lives that they are able to bring to their new home in America.
GCK is sponsored by several homeowners, and each Saturday, the kids divide into groups and go to houses around Denver to work on the gardens they have started. It so happened that because the gardens are looking so good this summer, this week was a free day! We loaded up all the kids (ages 6-16; from places all over Africa and now Burma) into about 4 different cars and headed to City Park. We picked a spot under a couple of gorgeous trees which happened to be adjacent to the mammoth worship experience a local Denver church was putting on for the 4th of July weekend. Baptisms included. A woman approached us to invite us to their free food of hotdogs and chips, but with a good portion of the kids being practicing Muslims we just said our “thanks” but “no, thanks.”
One of the volunteers, Patty, talked about nutrition for a bit, teaching the kids about 5-2-1-0 (5 fruits/vegetables a day, 2 hours or less of “screen time”, at least 1 hour a day of movement, and 0 sugary drinks).
After the kids drew on a plastic plate what they ate for breakfast (or did not eat), we raced, leaped, and soared into the spouting water fountain at City Park.
As I twirled a young girl around in the shooting water, I realized how amazing it would have been to have my camera with me today.
The look on her face was priceless, especially after she said, “I haven’t had this much fun since last summer when we came here.”
The shots would have been beautiful.
Yet, the best thing was that I was in the moment, not worried about much else. I felt happiness inside myself and all around me. Another young girl must have felt the same thing when she told me that we were dancing in “the rain of love.”
I didn’t need the photos today.
Mostly, I just needed today.
Check out Growing Colorado here:
http://www.9news.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=148292&catid=222
http://www.growingcolorado.org/