If Only

If only I could go into the past, not to fix anything, not to warn myself of what’s to come, but just to watch. To see my little hands build dreams out of mud, to hear my own laughter echo through quiet afternoons, to run alongside my younger self, barefoot, breathless, unaware of time. I wouldn’t say a word— just stand there, watching, watching the way I used to chase butterflies, the way I believed every broken thing could be mended, the way I was enough, without even knowing it. If only I could go into the past, not to change a single thing, but to remind myself that I have always been whole. But alas! I can’t. Time is a river that never turns back, no footprints remain on the shores of yesterday. I can only close my eyes, let memory paint its quiet pictures, and whisper to the wind— "I remember, I remember."