On our recent visit with the kids, I took along the latest bag of those box top things that help schools get what they need. We don’t eat many foods that offer them, but we do use lots of Kleenex. So many, apparently, that Kelly actually asked what we did with them all!
Well, the dogs and I do a lot of tea and Kleenex time with folks who come to rock in our chair and sort through important stories.
The pollen has been really rough this year.
Then there are my tears. The kind that appear in a sudden rush, “The surest signs,” as Frederick Buechner would say, “of truth that we have.”
The kind, as my Pilgrimage friends would say, that we are meant to follow.
There have been lots of those this week.
Charlottesville.
Barcelona.
Deep connections forging themselves inside me as I learn new things.
Sadness. Grief. Anger.
And hints of relief, here and there.
Fortunately, today is a Kroger day. Or, more specifically, a Bill is going to Kroger day.
We don’t really buy food there. Mostly just things we can’t get at the Farmers Market.
Pills for Sarah who made a hasty leap from the couch, where she was helping me paint, and sprained her shoulder.
Paper towels. Probably zippy bags. Kleenex, for sure.
You get the drift. The dogs, who have recently become fascinated by bags of groceries, won’t even notice.
And yet, we need those things too. The things that support us in whatever else we’re trying to accomplish.
And cup after cup after cup of hot water with lemon in a sunny yellow Fiestaware mug that just makes my heart feel full.
It doesn’t make much sense that a mug full of water would feel that special, day after day, and yet it does.
What are the things in your world that feel like that?
Do you allow yourself to notice them? To make them part of your daily life?
We humans have learned through the ages to notice the things that aren’t working, far more than we do the ones that are.
It’s an important survival strategy!
Think about a hungry bear waddling rapidly in your direction through a field full of golden daffodils nodding in the sun.
Which needs more of your immediate attention?
Exactly! And, on the one hand, we want to keep noticing the bears in our world. When they’re literally there.
On the other hand, things like my beautiful, comforting mug, all warm and sunny, help us to be in the moment where we are, breathing in and out, and letting go of a bit our stress, which is really good for us and for the world.
Tears often work the same way. Also music.
So, Kroger. Kleenex.
And prayers for peace.