Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Still, Quiet, Joy

Know what happened on the way to work this morning? It was quiet enough, still enough, for a brief, brief moment in the middle of Manhattan to actually be able to hear the sound of bird feet on the manhole cover by the bus stop where I was standing. You could hear the little clicks as she moved from nubby button to nubby button on the top. Amazing. And then the traffic, mechanized and human, started up again and the moment was gone.

It made me think of other moments like that--moments of purest assurance that God delights in providing opportunities for us to simply enjoy. Here are some of them for me: Glimpsing a hummingbird, when I learned to hear the wind come before I felt it in Southern Louisiana, the wrap of a friend's arms in a hug, noticing a line of ants carrying a cracker across a sidewalk, finding the perfect word to fit the meaning and music of a poem that I might be working on, watching a chameleon cycle through his change in the company of eight year olds on a 183 year old gallery...

To a greater or lesser degree, these sorts of gifts are passing...but I have to say that it another pleasure entirely to wonder what the next one might possibly be. And to believe that it is there...amidst the inevitable challenges and struggles and trials that will be there just as surely. Comforting, actually.

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