A Brief Meditation on Messy

I went to Squish and Zoomboy’s Back To School night tonight–I covered both kids because Mate was doing soccer pictures as Coach.  I spoke briefly to both of Zoomboy’s teachers–I mentioned his open 504, and that if he happens to miss his meds, they’ll know it, but that he very much wants to do well.  His social studies teacher agreed, and then said, “Oh, I’m so sorry I made him cry.”

“How’d you make him cry?”  (She seemed like such a nice woman, too!)

“Well, my cat passed away this week, and I was telling the kids that it made me sad, but that we buried him and now he’s part of the earth, and suddenly Zoomboy started to cry, and he told us about Dennis Quaid, your orange cat?  And then the little girl next to HIM started to cry, because she remembered when HER cat died, and then the little boy sitting with us started to cry because he remembered when his dog died.  I felt so bad.  Everyone else went off to recess and we stayed in having a group hug.”

“Oh my God!”  (Seriously– I was torn between cracking up and apologizing!)  “I’m so sorry!”

“Oh, don’t be.  It was a really lovely moment.  I felt like we’d really shared an experience.”

That’s why it’s okay to be messy.  Group hugs, people who hurt with you, a shared experience instead of a lonely one.  That’s what messy gives you sometimes.  

***

And speaking of messy?  Squish had a big messy meltdown when she realized that tonight she was supposed to sing the Pizza Hut song to her parents and she missed it because she was getting her soccer picture taken.  I helped her feel better by singing it with her… “Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, McDonalds McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut!”  I swear, if it hadn’t been 105 degrees, I would have been STARVING.  

–And that’s it– a brief moment contemplating messy!

(And this one’s for Chicken–who loves this song!)