Why can’t I be my shadow?

All day she follows me, sometimes in front, sometimes beside me and sometimes behind me.

She likes to wing it too- sometimes she’s tall and paper thin and sometimes she takes something I’m wearing and embellishes it. Her vision of me is hilarious at times and she doesn’t mirror me when she doesn’t feel like it.

She’s incognito, anonymous and can’t exist without light. When I go out without makeup, no- one looks at her and says how brave she is because she gets to hide. She never has to worry about being judged on her looks, her clothes, her demeanor- in fact nobody even notices her most of the time.

She gets to be out there, in the sun light, cavorting as me with no limits, no crises of identity or worth. She goes everywhere I go, as my shadow and maybe a little bit of my alter ego.

The worries of the world aren’t concerning to her as she dances along a fenceline or joins up with my horse’s shadow for some partnership time.

She’s a part of me but yet she’s not. The sun commands her in a silent language and she obeys in a whimsical way.

She’s wherever I go, even at night - as long as there’s light, and I never walk alone. It’s always me and my shadow.

Why can’t I have her job? Why can’t I be my shadow…