the view from tippy toes

Last night at Barnes and Noble, after consuming a chocolate chip cookie, a little boy approached the table where his parents and older brother were sitting and said the following, in a VERY loud, VERY excited voice, raising higher and higher on his tippy toes with every word, lifting his arms to the sky, higher and higher:

"I.....LOVE.....CHOCOLATE!!!!"

I started laughing, of course, along with quite a few people in the cafe, and the little boy says to his dad:

"WHAT ARE THEY LAUGHING AT?"

To which his dad replied, laughing also,

"Well buddy, it seems they also share your affection....for chocolate."

So we did. The woman next to me in her twenties just kept shaking her head, smiling, and saying, "That is so great. That is so great..."

How do you explain how such a simple moment can change you?

I so connected with that moment, with the fact that nothing in the world could have stopped that little boy from saying exactly how he felt. I love that his Dad didn't hinder him, or reprimand him, or tell him to quiet down. The boy needed to say something, wanted to say it, wanted to scream it at the top of his lungs, raise his hands high for it, AND DID. I love that.

There was a certain "everydayness" to it, the Starbucks cups with green straws, books and magazines strewn on the tables of readers throughout the cafe, tan legs in summer shorts, and a little boy with his family...nothing out of the ordinary, really.The contrast of ordinary and extraordinary is a gift--and it's the contrast that reminds you, even sometimes shocks you, into really, really seeing. How beautiful God is to help us see with wider eyes, if only for a moment! For a time, perhaps a day, a week, or just a second- the curtain is pulled down a little bit, and the common, everyday things we consider to be boring, or old, or mediocre, are seen to be truly uncommon (what they really are, for we are so often blind, and forgetful that every single day is a blessing, and a gift)- every second alive and breathing should be celebrated. Tip tops of your toes, hands to the heavens, loudest lungs, CELEBRATED.

It's not just about chocolate. It's about life, and joy, and glimpses of the way the world is, if we could just open our eyes a little bit wider with wonder.


I wish you had been there.