Looking For Calm

Yesterday during my Pre kindergarten PE class we were playing a game of hide and seek. The children took turns hiding colorful beanbags and then once “hidden,” which could have meant just being tossed on the ground, they went to search them out. A little girl, Andrea, was feeling a little down because she had not yet discovered one. We partnered up and kept looking together round after round. She was deliberate in her search and kept at it…we walked a little beyond where most of the beanbags had been hidden and she peered around the back of an enormous oak tree. To her utter delight, a yellow beanbag was sitting at its base. She picked it up and the smile on her face was enormous…it lit up the sky. She carried the beanbag to me- gave me a high five and a grin and raced back to the group with her prize. Children are so much more in the moment and the present than we adults seem to be. We get consumed by what we need to do, what we have not done or what needs to get accomplished in the days, weeks, and months ahead. These single moments are over in a blink- so often we miss them because we are lost in worry or thought. I was grateful for “catching this moment” because it served as a reminder to me that all we have have is the “right here and right now.” There are no guarantees and no rain checks on an instant that captures our hearts and fill our soul and make us believe in the wonder of the life we have been given.