We had a young guest in our home this week. It has been a while. Cindy sent me after the “box of toys.” We keep it around to entertain. It has pull toys and a small play house and some characters. I went looking for it. I checked all the places it should have been and could not find it. In the last 6 months it seems to have disappeared. I know we will find it and remember why it got put where it was put, but for now it is just a memory.
While looking for it, I found my mother’s old hard make-up kit that went with her luggage. It was in an out of the way place and I remember that my mother used to carry it like a Mary Poppin’s bag. I pull it out and set it in the middle of the floor. When our guest arrived, he opened the treasure chest. It was filled with the blocks and residue of my childhood. Old matchbox cars missing the wheels. Luke Skywalker tattered and worn.
“Let’s build a house” my young friend urged. So we started to build a little village. Each house ended up with a lilac bush. One had a cistern for collecting rainwater. Little trees dotted the landscape. The blue cars parked in front of the blue house. The race cars circled the downtown tower.
I think I need to get on the floor and play with blocks more. We had a lot of fun. The abstraction of squares, pillars, triangles made for an endless amount of combinations. If we ever tried to build this village again, it would look completely different.
It is so easy to get stuck in the rut of the way things have always been. It is so easy to just go through the motions. One of the benefits of the last 6 months has been trying new ways. New ways of communication, new ways of being together, new ways of worship, new ways of eating. We have been reinventing different parts of our lives.
I’m watching what is going on around us and it feels like people are just trying to go back to normal. I’m not sure it’s a great idea to just go back. Maybe we need to think new thoughts about the future. Maybe we need to figure out how to pave new pathways. Maybe our future can look different than our past. If we break down life into the essentials and started rebuilding, could we have a more connected, more compassionate world? I’d sure like us to give it a try.