Innocence.

I took this picture about a week ago when it rained here in Florence and I couldn't help myself. The dad seems skeptical that I was capturing photos of his son, so I tried to be sneaky about it and pretend like I was taking pictures of a building; but his yellow raincoat, that blue umbrella with a face on it, those adorable little boots, and the joy he got from jumping into the puddle, I couldn't resist. 

Ever since I saw this boy playing in the puddles, it has made me so aware of the children here in Italy-the ones who grow up here and are born into this beautiful culture. The children are so different here. Seeing the kids here reminds me of my childhood because although my generation did have the internet, we still played outside and enjoyed jumping in puddles.

I looked out my window this morning, (like I usually do every morning) and I noticed a school across the buildings with all the kids running around into the building, speaking their little Italian phrases-yes I could hear them from that far away, and it just made me think of what it would have been like to grow up in Italy.

I feel like children have this uncanny innocence that doesn't necessarily just go away overnight, but I feel like in America, kids are exposed to so much more so much earlier and it really started to make me sad. When I returned from the market today, I saw a little boy behind his mom holding something and walking with it. Being in Orange County, I've gotten used to seeing 7 year olds walking around with iPads, playing on them, consumed with the technology at such a young age. I assumed this was just another OC type little boy, because he had that same puzzling look of determination that the OC kids do when they are playing a game on their iPad, iPod, or gameboys. When he passed by, I looked at what he was holding: he was holding a tiny chalkboard, practicing drawing his shapes. He drew three rectangles and a circle and he was so infatuated at perfecting his shapes that I just found it so refreshing that the culture out here hasn't yet obsessed over the latest technology-the thought for need the newest feature and needing to give it to their children. 

He seemed so innocent and he was popping into my mind the rest of the day that I just had to share.

It made me pause for a second and really realize what it is like to stop and smell the roses for a second, to not let life and it's extremely fast velocity overtake me and to remember that even though those things are out there, we don't have to partake in those miniscule things. We don't take the time to jump in the puddles or practice our triangles. But here, they do. That is why I love it here so much.