Away

While I was away.
The trees have been stretching
still growing
reaching upward, leaves loosing,
crumbling underfoot,
a minuscule mosaic of crackling tiles
blending with earth and grass
and me
needing this space more than
I knew.

today

This is the question:
toothpaste smeared on my bathroom sink
This is the answer:
thank you

When I Grow Up

Over the years I have discovered that only a few things bring me immense personal satisfaction and joy. I'm talking here about what Joseph Campbell refers to when he says "follow your bliss." For me that bliss is definitely in the creative area. Though I've enjoyed many avenues of self-expression through art, music, drama, nothing stirs me like the written word. I can't even really explain the feeling I get when I write something...create something with words...that I love. That is why I write. And why I look at everything I write as practice for when I grow up. I'm in no hurry...I'm just strolling along after my bliss. I'm getting to know me...which isn't so bad.

I don't want anything

This has been a very busy July. In the course of one week we had two back yard campouts celebrating July 4th, had the family over for more celebrating, made our weekly storytime outing, went to a really fun magic show, spent a day at the beach, made an evening outing to the local free concert series to hear some great folk music and let the kids dance their hearts out on the huge amphitheater lawn and made a yummy, messy icecream stop on the way home. Then a wedding and reception on Saturday rounded out our week. We've had a lot of fun and the kids have made many interesting comments about our various adventures. But one heartfelt declaration from our middle child made me stop and smile really big:

We have a princess at our house, she's four years old and like most four-year-old's she has a running list of things she wants. So we often talk about learning to be content, being thankful for what we have. I spent Saturday evening at a wedding reception watching our little princess in her favorite lilac-colored floor-length dress dancing blissfully, gracefully , ballerina-like to the music for over an hour with few breaks, and then only to come over to hear me say how beautifully she danced, then returning to the floor with a glowing , contented smile. Later that night, as I helped her get jammied and tucked into bed, she looked up at me and said in a dreamy sort of way,
"After all that dancing tonight, I don't feel like a want anything anymore."

We all know that things don't make us content. Things are just things. (I know, really profound, hey?") The Princess learned something Saturday night that I could not have taught her with words, because she felt it...the joy of just being. She has found inherent to who she is a love for music and dance, just as she has found that same joy in paint and play-dough. She is not My Little Pony or Disney Princesses, those things she wants. She is a created soul who finds joy in being the soul God created. It is my job to give her opportunities to experience that joy in the midst of cultural distractions that try to make us believe that things will make us happy.

True peace? True joy? True happiness?: Knowing the Creator and knowing what He created us for.