Sunday - July 19 - 2009
Facilitator & Sponsor: Lina
I woke up grumpy. It fact, the whole past week I had been in quite a slump. And this day I wasn’t the least bit motivated or excited about this outing – simply due to personal reasons. I just wanted to stay home in bed and sleep away my personal angst.
As Lina and I arrived before the kids to set up, Lina started playing this really annoying children’s party music from her laptop (one song actually was, “I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world”). I turned it down. She frowned at me. The bees started hovering around the food and then my head, and the juice we froze for the kids hadn’t thawed yet, and I had a splinter in my foot. For some reason, there was a storm cloud of misery hovering over me, and anyone standing in close proximity to me.
As the kids arrived I was still a bit stressed, but even more so, as I always am with children playing in and around a pool. I couldn’t relax. I was on edge.
One of the kids could tell I wasn’t having it so well. She came up and offered me one of her potato chips. I declined. She knew I was having a bad day, I sensed it - as much as I think it's important to never let kids in on one's own personal misery, she still knew something wasn't quite right with Dave. So she insisted I take one of her beloved barbeque chips. I ate one. She smiled and gave me a pat on my shoulder, such as an older sibling would, except she was no older than 10. As she went off towards her friends, she looked back again, I guess, as if to see I was any cheerier after her efforts. She smiled, but with concerned eyes. And as I managed a smile back for her noble efforts, I felt myself able to breathe a bit more easily, more steadily – as if life wasn’t really that bad afterall.
Immediately then, I witnessed one of her friends using the spraying lion's head as a drinking fountain. She was having so much fun and thinking she was so clever, though all I’m sure she got was a mouthful of chlorine. I caught myself laughing. And, the potato chip girl caught me as well. When our eyes met, squinting with laughter, I noticed that hers were now cleared of any more concern for me.
And suddenly then, I noticed it was over. Finally, it was officially over - my misery. The storm cloud was gone. For some reason, now, all my problems seemed a bit more manageable.
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