all children and animals are God and they need protection. most people don't know this. some people consider the notion but quickly dismiss it as another imaginative and fleeting fantasy. my imagination is pretty expansive and probably borderline insane but what the hell else are you going to do with an idle mind? i try to imagine my dogs talking to me with their eyes. and i think they do. i "hear" them, not with my ears but more with my mind. so i wasn't really surprised when this kid entered my personal space and i "heard" him, although he hadn't spoken a word. I always try to imagine I'm special in some way. Some connection with the Gods or another dimension, who knows what. Again, what else are you going to do when you are just like everyone else? pretend. I never stopped pretending from childhood. Anyway i was out at the stores one Saturday. This kid walked over to me. he didn't make eye contact but i knew he was purposely coming to me and that i should accept him. and it was soft. it's hard to explain but my heart was just softened. i usually don't care for kids too much. But this one was something ... different. it was one of those moments in life that felt so intentional. i kind of bit my bottom lip and raised my eyes to the corner to receive him. i felt myself reaching out my arm to receive him, without any thought and out of character. he latched onto my hand with his clammy and sticky little boy hand. it wasn't what i expected -- warmth and softness. so i suddenly snapped back into character and was about to ask him if he needed help or something. but he looked me straight in the eye. then i knew to be silent and trust the moment and just see what he was going to do next. his lips pursed through his hand he spoke to me. there was a kind of energy he delivered into me. it was faint but full of strength and power and goodness and need. through that energy it became clear and unquestionable that he was God. Bear with me. I know what this sounds like. But it was undeniable and immense. I knew. He was fragile and small in stature. a skinny little thing with hair in his eyes, clothes a little tousled. I snapped into reality and worried that his mom may be near and witnessing a stranger hand in hand with her little boy, in silence. I let go, looked around then back at him. His gaze was locked onto me. He silently demanded he was God. I knew it, fully. I knew he was God. It was the unbounded truth. Absolutely and right there. He spoke to me with his eyes, the same way I imagine my dogs do. In the same manner he relayed, "I need you to protect me." Then I saw a woman looking. I felt self conscious. I light heartedly said, "You're a cute little dude" and continued to the cashier to pay for my pups' squeaky toys and sausage sticks. Back in the car, i sat there in a little bit of silence and far away. My girlfriend, who didn't witness the whole thing, asked if I was okay. I chuckled, imagining I was a little cuckoo and said, "the weirdest thing just happened."