Thank you for that invisible force that gently nudges us in the right direction, even as we fight to resist it. It could be called Grace. Or the possibility of something out there that loves us, despite our fumbling lives. Or a wide river with a strong current that finds us wavering on its shoreline and pulls us into it's flow, delivering us downstream. The trick, is remembering that it is there. No matter the mess you have found yourself in, no matter how far you may have traveled in the wrong direction. There is no distance too insurmountable. There is no judgement in that irresistible under-current of Love.
Thank you that it found me this morning, feeling a bit lost and a bit angry as I packed the kids into the car with no idea about where I was about to go. For chancing to look at my phone and see that it was 10:22 on a Friday morning, and remembering that at 10:30 sharp someone would be sitting on the yellow cushion at the library on Irving street, reading a children’s book. And thank you for not resisting. For turning down 14th street and choosing children’s books over more destructive things.
Thank you for the only other two moms there, neither of whom I had seen before, who had both ended up at story-time for their own less-than-perfect reasons. Who seemed happy to linger as long as possible after the librarian had put away the story-time things, grateful for a few moments of connection with a person over 2.5 years old. Thank you that without knowing where I needed to be, I had ended up in exactly the right place. How I left an hour later with two new phone numbers and a playdate set up for later this week. And when I walked outside I found Orest in the parking lot, patiently waiting to jump-start my ancient car and follow me home.