I love the sound of children playing. I'm in the bedroom of our summer cottage checking my email, and the neighbor's trampoline and gym set is inundated with neighborhood children. I come here in the summer because it is in the White Mountains and it is quiet, rainy, and beautiful in July. I thought I might take a nap, but the children came out to play and filled the air with laughter and chatter, screaming and chaos. It was so refreshing. There is no adult anywhere near. The house with the play equipment belongs to a retired couple with ten children and many grandchildren who are currently down in the valley for the birth of a grandchild. But they don't mind, and the kids love to go over. They traipse through our yard and play frantically until someone's mom yells and they have to leave, or until someone gets hurt and they all escort him or her back home to get mom's ministrations. There is something wonderful in the voices of children playing, unfettered, on their own, in the forest air of mid summer.

Sunshine