A couple of tunes helped make the difference tonight.
The first was on repeat as I started the after-dinner dishes.
We got this party started.
PINK.
Meal with the kids, a typical dad dinner: New York beef hot dogs, and vegetable options: tonight it was green beans, carrots, or corn.
Dessert was simple, treats mom brought home from the store recently. And then there was a mix of self-guided activity to round out the evening. Everyone was tired this morning, so I was trying to angle for early to bed.
It was tricky.
Yes, it’s tricky.
Somehow we had lights out before 9 o’clock in the evening.
It happens most often during the 3am hour. Lying in the darkness, mostly asleep, shifting my head, feeling for a more comfortable spot on the pillow.
If there’s a lot going on — and in 2020 it seems that way most every day — my brain might start to churn.
To-Do’s, Things Done, and often, Prayers: all these flow through my head at this Holy Hour. I call it the Goly Hour because I think of it as prime time to reach out beyond myself. A minute of hope and angst, I pray, insisting that all the doubts and uncertainty and worry subside, that these evils bend to the higher power.
It’s not easy.
It’s a mixed bag of results, how much calm this Holy Hour brings; sometimes not much; sometimes I doze off again; sometimes I battle and improve my position, my position in my mind.
Good, bad or draw, it’s the Holy Hour: me, my thoughts and God.
From The Universe and The Time blog: “Carpe Diem, Vita Brevis” in other words, “Seize the Day, Life is Short”~
I stumbled across this blog a while back. Another iteration of a reminder we all need frequently – make the most each day; relish in the ordinary; we know not the hour or the day it will all be over, so make hay while you can.
YES.
And for the blog itself,
— Read on: theuniverseandthetime.blogspot.com/2013/02/carpe-diem-vita-brevis-seize-day-life.html
Our younger daughter has ups and downs with distance learning so far. Our other children, too. Maybe most kids do.
Not made easier by the two-way bilingual dynamic for the program she’s in.
Recently I sat with our six year old as she began her school day.
“Mariana Mariana…” the kids repeat.
I sit quietly on the side with my earbuds plugged into my daughter’s pink headset.
She’s a bit of a sleepy head right now. Deep into the week, a little earlier to bed might help. There’s a lot of yawning, a lot of fidgeting. And it’s only been 15 minutes.
Pandemic Life doesn’t make the kids’ days any easier. Bad air from surrounding wildfires don’t help.
I wonder how much these circumstances effect her experience. I bet a lot. A WHOLE lot. But that’s not the last word, either.
The situation isn’t ideal, but that’s life. Supporting through it, that’s God’s Grace in action.
Parents have been doing it forever; more broadly speaking, caregivers of kids have been doing it forever.
It’s how we support them. It’s also how we support each other. Chip in; come through when needed; be a go-to person, reliable, some one others can count on. Someone your kids can count on.
What happens next? Kids feel that sense of continuity and security. They feel the stability, they feel safe. And when this is so, children thrive.
Let’s start this way, from the Book of Luke, Chapter 6.
“I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”
Here’s what I know. I’ve worked to keep my house on rock all my life. Overall. But there have definitely been times, plenty of times, when I’ve struggled; in my worst moments, ideals have gone out the door due to matters that proved to much for me in the moment.
This verse from the Book of Luke is one of my favorites. It calls us to strive for what we know is right, to heed the wise words we hear, to build our house on rock, to fortify against the inevitable dangers, struggles, floods of difficulty that come along in life.
We’re called to trust in the foundation we’ve laid, and do what we know is right and correct in each moment in those most difficult times. In this way, the high river waters of life’s most challenging moments will not sweep you away; your house will stand firm.
All houses shake. But in the flood, yours can, yours will, stand firm. Let it be so.
We’ve got the Global COVID Pandemic, over 7,000 wild fires in the Western US so far, and sequester life and distance learning and so much wrapped up in between.
A weird year filled with uncertainty and many unsettling things.
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area where fires are burning on three sides it seems, the sky was gray, then later dark orange-red.
The kids were saying it was something like a movie maybe, living on Mars.
SURREAL.
Looking out into the strange orange hue, I can’t help but think, “Carry On.” “Keep going. Do what you can. Stay connected. Don’t give up.”
Even as there is fire in the sky waiting to rain down, PERSEVERE.
Do what you have to do to adjust and protect yourself and your people. And don’t let up. PERSEVERE.
Through the pandemic and challenges at work and home, enduring fire from the sky, the orange red time of many unknowns, PERSEVERE.
Quite a risque song, if you find the translation. Or better yet, check out the Youtube video at the end, with the English translation embedded. Listen and enjoy the song, the beat, the performance, the play.
Ay candela, candela Candela, me quemo aé Ay candela, candela Candela, me quemo aé
Puso un baile un jutía para una gran diversión De timbalero un ratón que alegraba el campo un día Un gato también venía elegante y placentero “Buenas noches, compañero,” siempre dijo así el timbal
“Para alguien aquí poder tocar para descansar un poco Salió el ratón medio loco también voy a descansar” Y el gato en su buen bailar, bailaba un danzón liviano El ratón se subió al guano y dice bien placentero “Y ahora si quieren bailar, búsquense otro timbalero”
Ay candela, candela Candela, me quemó aé Ay candela, candela Candela, me quemó aé
Ay candela, candela Candela, me quemó aé Oye, Faustino Orama’ y sus compañeros Necesito que me apaguen el fuego
Ay candela, candela Candela, me quemó aé Margarita llama pronto a los bomberos Para que vengan a apagar el fuego
Ay candela, candela Candela, me quemó aé Oye, si estás perdida llama a los siete ceros Y así vendrán más pronto los bomberos
Ay candela, candela Candela, me quemó aé Ay candela, candela Candela, me quemo aé, mamá
Margarita que me quemo, yo quiero seguir gozando La candela me está llevando, me gusta seguir guarachando Esta tarde venimo’ acabando, como quiera venimo’ tocando La mujer cuando se agacha, se le abre el entendimiento
La mujer cuando se agacha, se le abre el entendimiento Y el hombre cuando la mira, se le para el pensamiento De ti me gusta una cosa sin que me cueste trabajo De ti me gusta una cosa sin que me cueste trabajo
De la barriga pa’ arriba, de la cintura pa’ abajo Mira se quema, se quema, mamá, mira se quema, se quema, oye Mira mamá que me quema, mira llama pronto a los bomberos Para que vengan a apagar el fuego, mira que el fuego me está quemando
Y yo quiero seguir guarachando, mira se quema Báyamo Mira que Songo está que arde, mira se quema La Maya Mira ese pito que suena, Malaguën está que corta mamá Santiago de Cuba está que te mete en llamas se quema, se quema, se quema, oye
Mira me quemo, me quemo, mira que me quemo, oye, yo quiero seguir guarachando Mira mamá que yo vengo quemando, Faustino Orama’ tú está acabando Mira se quema, se quema pero mira mi mami se quema, oye se quema, se quema
Youtube, Buena Vista Social Club, Live in Amsterdam:
