Unexpected Meditation
by Paula Fitzgibbons of Mommy Means It
May 14, 2012
It was an irksome day, this
It needn’t have been
but for the windmills
meant to dazzle and disorient
In the brief shadow of time
between this meeting that
my girls insisted
upon sand and surf
And I relented
Schedule be damned
Wondering what it would be like
to live somewhere in there
In the space where worries flit in and out
but rarely reside,
I echoed their every move
They poured sand through their fingers
I followed, a baby discovering silk
They walked endlessly in search of
a few precious stones
Never truly understanding
how they discerned beauty from squalor,
I found my own
Smooth and flat, sometimes pointed
Then they led me to the promised land
Two giant rocks each
One set firmly in the sand
Having dropped our stones nearby,
gently we lay one on each distinguished rock
Sweetly, they posed together
until my mentors further instructed
Slowly, I was to lift the other rock, the prouder one
and pound the little stone to pieces
“Just try it, Mom. It’ll sparkle,” advised one
So I did
“It feels good too,” shared the other
And it did
Thrashing rock against stone against rock
Every muscle pulsing
Eyes ablaze
Coming to
to find the effervescent bits
Shining up at me from my hand
Unexpected meditation
Unplanned joy
to erase somebody else’s
muck and mire
