There is an old dirt road hidden within the piney woods of East Texas….
It’s near the farmhouse I grew up in as a child…
It’s lined with fallen brush and debris of those age old Texas pines…
It was more than a trail, more than a road; it was a sanctuary, and all mine…
As a child I rambled it endlessly…
Over and over again…
I memorized those woods: every tree, leaf, rock, sap covered stump, and creek…
The rocks were cool on the bare soles of my feet…
The fallen twigs, briar bushes and pine cones often scarred my shins as I ventured through…
But still with my shoes in hand, I would giggle, looking down at all the scars, bruises and scratches…
Like a road map, they showed me where I had been; leading all the way down from my knees to my red dust covered toes…
I would surely never hear the end of it upon returning home. For tomorrow was Sunday, which meant church…
Which meant a clean lil lady in a leg baring dress…
I could already see the steam exiting my Mamma’s ears when she got first look at me..
But I was a child…
With no worries, little cares and even less responsibilities…
Sure the ongoing lectures from my mother indeed made my young ears tiresome, but I channeled her out moments into her sermon;
As did most babes my age…
As I did traveling down that ole back wooded road…
Oh how I loved the silence of the wood…
No cars, houses, or city chatter…
Just myself and the beaten track, it had a beautiful melody all its own…
The way the wind whistled through the branches…
Causing those pines to sway ever so slightly in the breeze…
I would often pretend I was as tall as they were and dance along…
I could get lost for hours within only a few footsteps…
How amazed was I by the seemingly endless playground God had created for me and only me, there down that unrefined road…
I reveled in it all…
I was an angel there in my own little heaven (yet only the trees and myself knew it…)
Would have been nice to convince mamma as well, but there was little point in trying…
Occasionally others would find me:
• A rabbit
• An opossum
• Bullfrog
• Raccoon
• Deer
But never was I afraid. There was a calmness and assurance as I played on that weather beaten byway…
I was fascinated with all the creatures I encountered, their life in the in the woods..
Often I wondered if they felt as free as I did traveling that route…
Too, I was envious for none of them had to rush back home when Mamma hollered for supper. Thankful I am for those days…
Those miles I traveled for any and all I would discover…
With each day a new adventure…
So much did I acquire along my way…
At the time I was too naive to even realize it…
Just like those weeds that lined the gravel path I grew…
Blossomed as the wild flowers did in the spring….
Flourished like the dandelion…
I became tough and solid, just as the pine sap that trickled down those glorious trees…
I discovered that no matter how nasty and grimy you get, mamma will always love you endlessly despite the dirt…
I have long since made it to the end of that disheveled road…
But I often journey back…
When I’m home or a million miles away in my mind…
Just to remember that feeling, just to taste that innocence, just to feel a hint of that freedom God so graciously bestowed in me then. Those tress are still a standing but just as I, age has made them sway a bit more in the wind…
Story Submitted By Sharlotte Hippler Hightower