Sly Foxes

“I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.” 
― Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life

 

Today the volunteers had to go to a lecture about living in community by a visiting priest.  At first I wasn't feeling it.  I was tired, cranky, and very emotional from a rough week of teaching.  He talked about accepting your selfishness, using God's gifts that He can you, and the truly listening to one another.  He also brought up the idea of expectations in relationships versus demands.  All of these things have come up in my life recently.  It was weirdly accurate.  There goes God again.

 

From time to time, I remind myself of Niequist's quote and how we can it apply it to our daily lives.  It's about not taking yourself too seriously and remembering you too deserve to act like a kid every once in awhile.  That's why on Wednesday I taught my students how to act like foxes and slyly walk from our building to the other elementary building.  Every so often I would turn around and they would stop in their tracks with a scared look on their faces.  Must have been because I told them if I caught them that the enemy critter would eat them.......