What to Watch For

Sometimes you’re blindsided. In an ordinary day something extraordinary happens and it thrills or breaks you – touches you in a spot that’s normally buried or suppressed.

Tuesdays are kid day for me. I watch my 3 yr. old granddaughter in the afternoon until we get her big sister off the bus and then I have them both. Yesterday after lunch Sierra and I sat on the bed to read some of her favorite stories, one of which is Cinderella. We’ve gone down this fairytale path many times and I suggested we look for the movie online.

You know how I love You Tube and that’s where we found her. Some clips from the Disney version. The one where the mice rise up and decide to make their beloved Cinderelly a dress for the ball. Now, I have to tell you, when I was Sierra’s age I loved this story above all others. Mom had to read it to me almost every nap time. It fed my young imagination and may be one of the reasons I write now. Anyway, as the mice sang and the dress became a reality, I got all misty eyed. I was suddenly in the realm of extreme sentimentality and I was four again. I could barely grasp the beauty of sixty years passing and re-living my own naptime with my granddaughter on my knee. I looked into her sparkling blue eyes and felt a rush of pure love.

Then, this morning I opened my Facebook page and found this from my sister Pam. She must love Les Miserables, the musical, as much as I do. This flash mob was a theater company singing One Day More. It’s one of my faves. There in the mall one man steps into an open space and begins. Then seemingly random shoppers join him. All around the real random shoppers stop to listen. I sat mesmerized as one by one these individual with amazing voices joined the throng to belt out their feelings about what would horribly happen the very next day. It hit me just like it hit the onlookers, suddenly, wonderfully and with rising emotion. And thunderous applause rang out as the song ended and the ordinariness of life at the mall resumed.

These are moments to look for in every day. They can be bright bits of Heaven or brief glimpses of Hell. Perhaps it’s not possible to watch for them as that would diminish the wonder. But sometimes, just before the strike, our senses go on full alert and we’re caught up in reverie or revelation. Both shape our lives profoundly.

What has happened to you lately?  

Image: Free Digital Photos