Chances are: If you open your heart, eyes, and ears WIDE enough and pay close enough attention, sooner or later, you will have the privilege to see beyond – beyond the ordinary, beyond and beneath the superficial, beyond appearances – and your life will never be the same. I know, because that’s where I live and it’s been where I’ve lived for the better part of the last ten years. It’s an astonishingly beautiful, deeply emotional, and often very challenging place to be, especially for someone like me who feels it all, but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. It’s the difference between seeing and walking past a still-wrapped-in-cellophane bouquet of flowers laying on the side of the road and pausing to pick them up not realizing as you did that, moments later, they would fulfill their destiny and make a stranger’s day (https://tinyurl.com/rzz7xrf4). It’s recognizing that the mother bird on the sidewalk in front of you isn’t just gathering remnants of “yesterday’s news” to build a nest, she’s teaching a life lesson about brokenness – and stopping to learn it as she carefully, lovingly weaves the seemingly ill-fitting, mismatched pieces into a tapestry that will serve as a cradle for new life, a new beginning (https://tinyurl.com/y2k2fzu5). It’s sensing – in the moment – that a dying friend’s whispered request for help with a sip from a bedside juice box is less about thirst than it is his need to know that he’s not alone in the darkness of his hospital room and being able to offer that reassurance in what would turn out be his final hours. It’s realizing that the picture of the beautiful black and white cat taped to a telephone pole is simply a placeholder for all the lost so desperately trying to find their way home and taking up the search for her with the same urgency and ferocity you would if she were your own (https://tinyurl.com/wwrywnu2).
The thing is: No matter how finely-tuned your heart antennae may be, you never know when one of these moments is going to happen, but you always know when it is happening! It’s hard to explain the feeling unless you’ve experienced it. Sometimes it’s an almost imperceptible stirring in your heart. Still others, as in the case of my fine-feathered friend, it’s a spontaneous outpouring of tears that appear out of nowhere. On occasion, however, it’s an almost audible whisper “to pay attention” because something extraordinary is about to happen. And so it was a few months ago, as we sat on the sidewalk benches outside a small Mexican restaurant (Taco Lucha), while visiting our just-turned-six grandson, Jake, in Kansas. We were waiting for a table on the outside patio to clear for our party of six, when a young mother and her daughter, Lyla, exited through the cantina’s turquoise-framed front door on their way to the parking lot. Lyla immediately recognized Jake and shyly called her mom’s attention to him and our daughter-in-law, Emma (Jake’s mom). Turns out Jake and Lyla had been pre-K classmates, but, due to the pandemic, they hadn’t seen each other in months. Lyla also seemed to understand that Jake would be moving on to Kindergarten and a new school in a few short weeks, which meant they likely wouldn’t see each other again for a while. It was then that Lyla’s mom intuitively saw her daughter’s heart. “Do you want to give Jake a hug?” she asked. Lyla nodded – the voice whispered, and I lowered my menu (that’s “me” in the upper left hand corner).
Seconds later, Jake and Lyla embraced – right there on the sidewalk, without a moment’s hesitation or the slightest hint of embarrassment. Thankfully, one of the moms snapped the photo you see above. I say thankfully, because, as my heart antennae foretold, this was no ordinary hug. This hug lasted for several minutes, without Jake or Lyla saying a word to each other. In fact, it lasted so long that one of the adults said, “Okay, this is getting a little awkward!” But, to Lyla and Jake – and to me – there was nothing awkward about it. They were busy teaching a Master Class on “How to Hug” and they were intent on taking as much time as their hearts needed to share all that needed to be said: “I think you’re very special. I really enjoy our time together. I’m glad you came into my life. You made my days brighter. You made me happy. You’re fun to be with. You’re a good friend. I’m gonna miss you. I love you.” It was as if the rest us weren’t even there. When they finally separated (with a smile) and Lyla and her mom went on their way, I turned to Jake and said simply, “Jake, that was an EPIC hug!” The adults all laughed nervously and returned to their menus as if something like what we had just witnessed happens all the time – like it was no big deal. “No big deal?” I thought to myself. “I wonder if they know that I gladly would’ve traded every gift I ever received as a little (and not-so-little) boy to have been on the receiving end of a hug like that – just one. I wonder if, like me, they appreciate how different our world (and theirs) would be if we learned to hug like Jake and Lyla – until the message we intend to send is permanently imprinted on the huggee’s soul.”
Maybe now they do …
donblackwell 