Contentment.

my breakfast and the Word.
oatmeal with peaches, Daniel.

hopeful orange, yellow flowers
on a windy, gray day.

resting under seas of blankets.
a heavy, warm cocoon.

my aunt and i sitting in the small kitchen.
like mother to daughter.

"We should all do what, in the long run,
gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes
or sorting the laundry."
-E.B. White

MEMO Man.

Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a judgmental post. I am only writing about my classroom highlights.

Last week, I started my two summer courses which means I am in class everyday from 1-5:30pm. I actually wish I hadn't signed up for classes because I would like a break from academia. (Have you ever noticed how academia looks like macadamia? Now I just want to go to Hawaii.)

One of my highlights is seeing what my classmate will walk in wearing. I can't tell if he's trying to dress metro or emo. For lack of a better phrase, I call it MEMO. This Monday, he wore a sweater that would have won at my Christmas Ugly Sweater Party. The next day, it was a collared shirt with huge purple, green, and white stripes that evoked thoughts of Barney the Purple Dinosaur. Every outfit is topped with skinny jeans and a leather man purse. Murse. (To all the men out there who do not wear skinny jeans or short-shorts, thank you.)

Do you think me a judgmental bully with no right to pick on an unsuspecting bystander? From the MEMO outfits I have described above, you may have likened him to Steve Urkel. But wait! He walks in wearing all these MEMO outfits with a Kobe-esque air of confidence. As he mentioned in class, he used to be a swimmer and maintains his swimmer physique. (I have no idea how this related to the topic of people with disabilities.) He walks in strutting his stuff like he's the man and all I want to do is laugh because it reminds me of Aesop's crow sticking peacock feathers in its butt. In the end, I took his self-confidence as permission to write this. Character trumps clothes any day.

I am really bad at not judging a book by its cover.
I hope he surprises me.

(To my joy, he came in wearing suspenders over a plaid shirt today. MEMO man strikes again!)

Hopes and Flight.

I stretched my arms toward the sky
like blades of tall grass.
The sun beat in between my shoulders
like carnival drums.


I sat still in hopes that
it would help my wings grow
so then I really would be fly.
-Love Rain, Jill Scott

Boo-Boos.

A couple weeks ago, I injured my foot. No one knew about it because it's in a strange spot and I don't go barefoot in public too often. It went unnoticed by everyone but a 2-year old. As I babysat her, she happened to be playing at ground level with her dolls. She only has a few words in her vocabulary, but she noticed my "boo-boo", came over and kissed it.

So simple.
So sweet.
And pure.

Because when I think about, I don't think anyone besides my parents would ever kiss my foot. When we get older, we are too conscious of dirt and germs and everything gross. We are too conscious of what we should and shouldn't do. We are governed by rules and rights and wrongs. Of course many of these things are necessary, but this care she showed was done without a second thought. It was so simple, and yet I come back to that memory a month later because I think of how it demonstrates a love that is pure. No thought of oneself, only of healing someone else's hurt. And I think about how Jesus would not only wash my feet as a symbol of his servant heart, but also die for me as a symbol of his love, grace and sacrifice. I don't think this action was so simple, but I wonder if Jesus saw it so that it was. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:5-8) He did not consider it robbery.

If grace is an ocean,
we're all sinking.