"Whispers of Independence"

EN ROUTE 9-15-15 7:45am

I travel a portion of Johnson Street 5 days a week and, more times than not, there is a brief moment of goodness to be seen. Other times, there is something that makes me wonder about a person’s life. I always welcome the wave and smile of the crossing guard at the elementary school. Often I see a little girl skipping down the sidewalk with her book bag bouncing up and down. Yesterday, a mother was all but dressing her little boy as he sleepily made his way to school. I could almost hear her say, “Raise your arms, put on the sweater, now for the book bag. Stop so I can smooth your hair. It’s sticking up everwhichaways!” (OK, so I had to throw in ‘everwhichaways’ as it is a perfectly good word)

This morning, I saw two little children, a brother and sister, walking to school. It brought back those first moments of independence given to me by my mother … that first time when she asked me to ride my bicycle to the store to buy sugar. “You can put it in your basket. Don’t forget to bring the change back.” Or at Ocean Drive Beach when she gave me $1.00 and said that I could walk to the corner drugstore to buy postcards or what would prove to be a tacky souvenir. I smiled as I saw these two little ones walking to school this morning. I whispered, “Independence” and nodded my head. Then I saw her. I saw the mother hiding behind a column on the stoop of their mill house. Hiding and peeking from behind the column. Watching her beloved children walking away from her.

So I guess (or I hope) that’s what it’s like as I begin my own day and as I walk to my car and as I drive away from my apartment. Perhaps like this mother, God is leaning out from the stairwell, looking my way, watching this beloved child named ‘Anna’ as she drives off into the unknowns of the day. The whispers of a mother who is peeking out from behind a column on the stoop of her small house and the whispers of God who is seeing us all off into our day are much the same … “I love you, my children. Go and be who I have made you to be.”