SUBURBAN SPIRITUALITY: THINK INSIDE THE BOX

Trivial Pursuit was my specialty. Even if I didn't have a clue, I could sway my team with such confidence we'd use my answer.  (sound like the makings of a lawyer? recipe for a lawyer: take 27 parts b.s., add 42 million parts confidence, plus 2 parts intellect.)

My favorite answer lately, to any question, on any topic, to any audience "I DON'T KNOW."

A rainbow spread across the suburban rooftops just before 8 p.m. last night. We could see the two ends, brightly glowing. Resplendent. Ava dropped from the tree she'd been shaking, dangling, clinging, climbing, hugging, leaves rustling at her quick departure. The boys turned from their moving bundle scuffle of kicking, punching, grabbing, squeezing, cheeks flushed, eyeballs sideways, teeth snaggled. 

We stared. Awed by the glowing splendor.  (Incidentally, I now associate rainbows with chick-fil-a as a sort of entry in my mental thesauras, under antonyms.)

Leif gave god a ride on his bicycle, through suburbia, around 8 p.m. two nights before.  "Mom! MOM! MOOOOMMMMMM!!!! Come look a praying mantis on my bike!" My reluctance overcome by his urgence, I followed his excited voice to the backyard. There, on the handlebars, a green mantis, stared at us, still as silence. (Once, Leif told me "Mom, it's impossible to do nothing."... As he stood perfectly still, not breathing, not blinking, not speaking...heavy outbreath..."See! Did you see that? Even just now I was doing something, standing. see? it's impossible to do nothing.")

We gazed at its compelling serenity.

The African Bushman say the mantis is god incarnate, a divine messenger. "the voice of the infinite in the small." When it appears, it will "show one the way."  (Once, on a tick infested, mosquito buzzing, wild, hardly tamed, acre of yard in the arkansas country side, my friend and I trapped by the pitch black of night at the other end of the property from the house, wondered how to hoof it home. Grabbing my hand, she exclaimed in her unworried home turf confidence "Follow me I know the way!"...we sprang forward, high stepping, gingerly...squealing...immediately crashing into a large brush pile and falling flat on our faces. )

A lady bug landed on my hand, on my suburban stoop, crawled busily across the ridges of my fingerprints, up my arm, doubling back down, to the tip of my pinky and flew away with her crunchy delicate wings.  They say the ladybug will whisper your name in your true love's ear...(note: do not be the aphid. ladybugs devour pesky little aphids to infinite nothingness with quick overwhelming force. sweet little ladies.)

"What will you do next?"...pause, trying to develop a suitable answer..." hmmmm...(this keeps the listener in suspense, waiting for the revelation)...head slightly cocked to the right...I dunno.. (the answer feels new everytime).