Carry a small grape

Reading from Tuesday, September 17, 2013 yoga class

I am reading a book called "Life is a verb" by Patti Digh.  The premise of the book is:  if you knew you had 37 days to live, what would you do with your 37 days?  The book is funny, thought provoking, full of good quotes, and pictures and drawings.  I have been reading it SLOWLY.  Trying to absorb it.  What follows is a passage from this book about her daughter, Tess. 

"For two weeks now Tess's toddler self has been carrying around a small object.  It's with her everywhere she goes.  She sleeps with it under her pillow, takes it outside, places it on the swing and swings it like a friend or a pet or a charm.  When she can't find it, she panics.  It is the first thing she reaches for in the morning; it is the last thing she says good night to.  It sits next to her in her carriage when we go for walks; it sits on the shelf near the tub when she takes a bath.  It is her constant companion.  It is her talisman, her good-luck charm, her grounding.  It is a ziplock bag.  Inside you won't find a cute, fuzzy stuffed animal or favorite blankie or piece of jewelry.  You'll find two small pieces of Hampton Inn hotel soap.  One soap is rectangular and flat, one is round.  Each has edges worn down where Tess has held them... The soaps are her constant companion--along with her grape.

Last month Tess and I had a snack of grapes (red, seedless, organic, expensive) and she was quite delighted when she found a teeny tiny grape in the bunch.  "Lookeeee!" she screamed, running through the house naked, her teeny, tiny grape held high.  "Isn't it sweeeet?" she asked, holding it gently with two tiny fingers an inch from my nose.  "It's very fragile."

Like the soap, her grape goes everywhere with her.  She took the plastic top off an empty bottle of bubbles and made a grape bed inside the lid with toilet paper, gently placing the little grape on it.  Over the weeks, teeny tiny cute weency bitty grape shrank even more.  Now microscopic, he still lives on that little bottle-top bed, carried like royalty from room to room with a loyalty rare in this throwaway world."

                           Be thrilled by
                           small things
                           fragile things
                           wee tiny things
                           carry a small grape

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we didn't lose that sense of wonder a small child has... gosh...it would be a better world, wouldn't it?