Learning to Love

"If you're interested in quick happiness,
then faith doesn't work.
And perhaps that is one of the reasons
for the crisis in faith nowadays,
that we want our pleasure and our happiness at once,
and not to take the risk of a lifelong venture -
a venture made in the trust that this leap
will not end in nothingness,
but that it is by its nature
that act of love for which we were created.
And which alone gives me what I want:
loving and being loved and thereby
finding true happiness."

BXVI

8 minutes

it takes 8 minutes in okay weather to get luci to school. the sun was just at the horizon and the sky was pink. the moon was big and white like a balloon; the other day it looked like a pumpkin. as we were heading out we saw the sun rise in the rearview mirror. by the time we got to the school the moon was setting into the farmland west of the school. how cool is that?

the picture is of luci's drawing for school. all the kids submitted something which somehow got transferred into the border of a mirror. the mirror is getting raffled off at a st. patrick's party tomorrow nite. by the way, i knocked down a tripod with a sign getting up after lying on my belly taking the picture. while the principal and kindergarteners watched. smooth.

marvyn fix

after a long weekend of worrying about a couple who had, praise GOD, a normal delivery on monday, i am now able to focus on some simpler things. like the power of prayer from the mouth of a child. like how luci likes her hair braided so it's puffy in front. like elijah on the potty grabbing his birdie, stretching it sideways at the tip and saying, 'look mommy, big jet birdie.'

so there's this guy who's always on the verge of being late bringing his son to school. the first bell rings at 8:04am, the second at 8:09. it seems i'm always running luci in the door at 8:06 and rushing to get her into the classroom as he's leisurely strolling in with his son, whose locker is right next to hers. (g: you know who this is!) at 8:09 luci jumps through the classroom door; he's casually lacing up his son's sneakers and says, "just in time, buddy, just in time." he gives his son a pat on the head and walks slowly down the hall, adjusting his arcteryx jacket, moving in the direction of his SUV. i thought to myself, "hmm... that was sort of my marvyn fix for this morning."

22 years ago marv and i were rushing through a snowy parking lot watching people walking to their lockers, first bell already had rung. that was when i was in 6th grade and my first class was jr high band at the high school, so my mom elected him to bring me in, since he was a senior. he'd carry my percussion kit since it was too heavy and slowing me down. i often looked back at our car; the windshield of the 1980s red (?camaro?) would only be cleared off partially in the front, partially in the rear. forget the side windows, we'd just roll them down to see side traffic. huffing and puffing i'd get in just as the bell rang. so did marv, apparently. he'd borrow the bathroom pass to collect last minute items from his locker.

old habits die hard. but they make for good stories.