WARMTH AND DANCING

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

We had a wonderful visit from Matty yesterday – two hours of friendly and often profound conversation. I am a lucky dad to be learning so much from my four children. I was their classroom teacher for a few years, but they have been my teacher for all the years of their lives. It’s so fortunate that Matt lives just a few miles away, which makes it easy for us to get together for discussions. Yesterday, we sat in front of a friendly fire and roamed in a carefree way over countless topics, from stoicism to weaving milkweed strands to the struggles of young people today. There was warmth flowing out from the fire, and also from our unruffled, heartfelt words.

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ACTUALLY DANCING 

On any given day, my thoughts are usually as gossamer and scattered as the dusting of snow across Mystic some winter mornings, and that’s exactly what I love most about them. I feel fortunate that my thoughts are as insubstantial as the snowflakes that floated down on us last night. Even worrisome thoughts seem to easily scatter through my mind, and, if I let them, just as easily disappear, as will this wispy sheet of snow by the afternoon. When I step back and simply observe them, I see that my thoughts are actually flimsy specks that fling themselves around in fairly disorderly ways. It’s like they’re having fun, these sometimes bothersome but always free-spirited thoughts that dance around inside me, and I often have fun observing them in their escapades. Like snowflakes, even the most fearful thoughts sooner or later settle to a stop — sometimes on a computer screen in curious rows called sentences.