Thank you for Eloise and Moses in a shaft of early morning light from the kitchen window, making shadow puppets on the wall. For Zoe's hands, how they are soft and delicate and slip fleetingly in and out of yours like they are made of smooth, dry paper. Thank you for each day, a sense of renewal. How little children are the best proprietors of this, for what child wakes up in the morning with a grudge on their heart?
Thank you for Tre’s 6th birthday party that lasted through the evening. For the sliver of late afternoon light on his face in the darkening living room. For Eloise in a sundress with her hair combed through by her father, little curls forming at the nape of her neck. For Laura’s dad, inviting Orest on his annual fishing trip as if they were old friends. For Julian crawling towards me with an enormous smile, his hand clutching the string of a balloon as it bobbed over his head. For sitting at the kitchen table with Laura, her sister and mom, discussing the best recipe for chicken dumplings and feeling blessed to be included in her family for a long afternoon.
Thank you for sitting beside Vicki at Mile Hi this morning. For the unreserved way that she interacts with the world - taking time to say hello to everyone she passes, laughing with strangers, talking with people she has never met before like they are already familiar. How she says “good afternoon” in response to a pastor greeting a congregation, and treats a ten year old girl at the park like there is no age difference between the two of them.
Thank you for the small bits of inspiration that I took home with me after the service today: Being reminded to pay attention to the relentless calling inside of us to embark on the true purpose of our lives. That this true purpose, which is individual for each of us, isn’t a part of our lives, it IS our life. And there is something that you alone can do better than anyone else in the world. Letting your heart prevail: A reminder I needed to hear that it is okay to be led by your heart. That sometimes our hearts are drawn to the painful things in life. That our hearts are willing to be broken, so that they might be broken open. Awakening us out of apathy, a state of being that “disables compassion, closes the heart, distances us from caring.” The story of Nicholas Winton, who single-handedly took it upon himself to save 669 refugee children in Czechoslovakia during the outbreak of World War II, and said, “Don’t be content in you life just to do no wrong. Be prepared everyday to try to do some good.” A quote from Howard Thurman: "Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” And the soloist who belted out the words to Somewhere Over the Rainbow, singing “The dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true.”