Like Children
who told us to stop dreaming like children?
i once believed i could fly
like the sky wasn’t too far away.
all i had to do was jump a little higher.
i wore a mask
believed i had a purpose—
maybe to save the world.
i built rockets out of boxes—
never once doubted
it could take me to the moon.
who told us dreaming is for children?
maybe it is
but maybe
that’s the point.
maybe we need to be a little more like children.
be content with the tiniest things
like climbing trees for hours
or finding shapes in the clouds.
enjoy life like no one’s watching,
dance in the rain,
stomp in puddles.
be a little more careless
about what we look like
and what we’re wearing.
believe without proof.
who told us to stop dreaming like children—
that growing up means growing out
of the purest version of ourselves?
Dust
we came as dust,
innocent,
knowing nothing,
until
we grow
and walk
and with every step
we attract more dust.
as we move,
as we talk,
as we connect
with others—
other pieces of dust,
we collect their dust too, becoming
more contaminated as we go.
unclean, in need of cleansing,
we stack up our riches in this world,
gaining knowledge,
making money,
grabbing everything
we can and holding
tightly to it
like it’ll last forever.
but then we lose it
like everything else.
some of our dust blows away
but as we keep walking we
gain new dust
from new places
and new people,
then that blows away too.
that’s just how it goes.
we’re a pile of dust that repeatedly
gets bigger
and smaller
and bigger again
as life moves on,
until the end
when we realize
that was it.
we’re just a pile of dust and that’s all we’ve ever been.
we gained
and we lost
and what for?
because here we are again,
a piece of dust at the end,
just like we were from the start.
but that’s just it.
all we have is who we’ve always been.
we came as dust and we go
as dust.
Sydney Cooper is pursuing psychology and youth leadership development at Anderson University. Before beginning her college career, she received the English Department Distinguished Senior award, revealing her love for literature. She is passionate about expressing her heart through writing in various forms such as journalistic writing and poetry. Everything she does and writes about comes from a place of connection to Jesus. She is the leader of campus ministries at her college, including leading her own prayer ministry. All of her experiences and lessons from ministry are reflected in her writing. It's because of Jesus that her words have meaning.