Nora, Ru and I are in the carpool line waiting for AM drop-off to begin.

BRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Morning bell rings. Cars start up. Almost time to inch forward.

“Oh no!!!!!” 7 year old Nora shrieks, “My water bottle wasn’t closed all the way!!!!!!!!!!!”

She’s digging through her backpack, pulling stuff out.

Dripping gloves, sopping purple crushed velvet purse (?!?) , damp crumpled up paper balls, more damp crumpled up paper balls.

Older sister Ruthie freezes for a split-second and flashes to the fix, “Grab a shopping bag and the towel from the back!” she orders.

We do. We dry. We get what is necessary. (Not the purple crushed velvet purse.)

We drop Nora’s lunch, her daily folder, and her now-closed water bottle into the paper bag.

We leave the rest.

We pull forward.

Nora giggles with her flowered shopping bag on her shoulder and yells over her shoulder at me, “Bye mom!”

I smile. Satiated by the simplicity of solving in this moment.

This.

Was a problem to be solved.

A thing to fix.

(Feels so good.)

These things happen.

Sometimes.

And sometimes
they
don’t.

Sometimes, our greatest power in the here and now is
to feel.
(ugh, yes, that thing.)

With love, care, admiration, and wonder.

What is here?

We can ask,

What is here?

Is it a problem to fix?
Or a moment to feel?

A solution to find?
Or a softening to be?

Is it the black and white?
Or the grey zone?
(Always and forever.)

I wonder. Sometimes I wonder.

Big love as we wonder – and dry up the spilled stuff as necessary,
Rachel