“Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the show!”
These words came from one of my twins’ mouths as we started our drive to school this morning. His brothers chimed in with “Yea, let’s go!” as their plastic dinosaurs and snakes and little metal cars began to dance.
Their imaginations are my equilibrium these days. The fantasy world continued on our walk into school even as the physical toys were left behind in the car. Yesterday, I made the claim that the boys had “ants in their pants.” So today they expanded on that by telling me I had “tren-an-chu-las” on my back. The whole walk three sets of hands mimicked the feel of spider legs on my back and arms as they laughed and laughed at my pretend horror.
It was actually pretty great because they stayed connected to me through the parking lot for the first time in weeks. Finally, as we arrived at school, the pretend spiders disappeared and I was embraced with full body hugs before the boys ran off to school.
Their wonder, their excitement, their imagination grounds me in the present time of so much unsettling.
What grounds you?
My prayer this morning is a poem by John O’Donohue from his book To Bless the Space Between Us. May it help you find your equilibrium today:
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.
As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity by lightened by grace.
Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.
As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.
As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.
As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.
May your prayer of listening deepen enough
to hear in the depths the laughter of God.
