a little sparkle

Let me tell you a story. It’s about a girl I knew once. She was a student of mine, one of those who you’ll remember forever. She was rough around the edges to say the least, carrying more on her shoulders than any young person should. She and I got along marvelously, for the most part. I would, on the regular, have to crawl down under her desk to talk her out of tears when things got tough. Needless to say, she made an impact.

One of my favorite things about having her (we’ll call her Lana) in my class was that every now and then I would find little gifts on my desk. Sometimes it was just a folded up piece of notebook paper apologizing for being so hard on me, sometimes the pieces of paper were so small that they were hidden underneath the never ending mess of one corner of my desk and would serve as a pleasant surprise when I unearthed them. Whatever form these came in, they would always come unexpectedly. I started calling them Lana Glitter. Just as you would sprinkle glitter over, well anything, these gifts would be sprinkled in my day. They were unexpected, and boy did they stick.

I’m sure you’ve seen those cute little signs intended for little girls’ bedrooms that say, “She leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes.” Lana was like that. I think the Universe is like that too, if we open ourselves to see the sparkle that gets dusted in our day. As I write, it’s about 7:30 in the morning. The sun is just coming up and the birds outside my window are waking to a new day. I thrive on natural light, so my desk overlooks our front window. Often times, birds will pause on our bush just on the other side of the window from me and peek in. We will look at each other, wish each other well, and off the bird will fly to another adventure.

Experiences like this remind me that we are still connected. There is a world out there that is still waiting for our presence, for us to explore. For now, we wait. We wait to be able to meet friends for dinner or a drink, to hug loved ones, to take our kids to playdates. We wait for life events that have been put on hold. Weddings, graduations, birthday parties. We can choose to take this time to pause and take notice of the little things, the ordinary things, the things we might usually overlook, the sparkle that the Universe leaves in our days. I’m making that choice. Will you?