The "You're Not Fat" Campaign

The Stevenson kids are all painfully adorable. They have silky pale blonde hair and enormous eyes the color of cornflowers. Seven-year-old Becca rules the roost. She's bossy and charismatic, with a vivid imagination and a stubborn streak a mile wide. Six-year-old twins Lanie and Maya are polar opposites of each other, Lanie being loud and talkative, Maya being shy and reserved. Four-year-old Kyle is the sweetest, most precious child I have ever babysat.

I am babysitting today. They are playing Ring Around The Rosy, their cornsilk hair fluttering. I sit on the couch, watching the four little kids play and remembering back to the days when I was that innocent. When the only worry I had was which swing I got on the playground or which square my pebble landed on during hopscotch.

I miss that innocence.

I miss the days before I knew that Ring Around The Rosy was about death.

Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.