Bubbles in the Bucket:1
24 May 2012, updated 3 June 2012
It was time to do something different. My work and my goals are different now. The things that mattered three years ago are about as resolved as they will be.
I choose the title of this new blog as blowing bubbles in the bucket. The image comes from an upper classman, a drama geek, two years ahead of me in high school: Meg. She had a philosophy of the world.
We are all in our own little buckets of ...dog's droppings (she used a much more colorful metaphor). We are all floating around on graham crackers in our own personal bucket of...stuff. The sides of the bucket are slippery and we can never get out of our buckets. We just keep floating on our graham cracker. Some days, our graham crackers are floating high and we don't care about all of the stuff that surrounds us. Some days, our graham cracker starts to crumble and it looks like no matter where we step, we are going to fall into it. Other days, our graham crackers get soggy and we are just standing there, not doing anything, and we begin to sink into it.
We are all in our own little buckets of ...dog's droppings (she used a much more colorful metaphor). We are all floating around on graham crackers in our own personal bucket of...stuff. The sides of the bucket are slippery and we can never get out of our buckets. We just keep floating on our graham cracker. Some days, our graham crackers are floating high and we don't care about all of the stuff that surrounds us. Some days, our graham cracker starts to crumble and it looks like no matter where we step, we are going to fall into it. Other days, our graham crackers get soggy and we are just standing there, not doing anything, and we begin to sink into it.
But Meg had her own way of dealing with her bucket. She said the best thing to do was just blow bubbles.
Meg had a grin that seemed to go from ear to ear. She often wore lace,or ruffles, had long curly red hair...and I think I saw her most often in white clothes. She was a classic '70s girl. I thought she was amazing.
When she wasn't singing...and when I first met her she was one of the singing nuns in our high school production of "The Sound of Music." She seemed much like a butterfly, not ever taking life too seriously, but still squeezed out every drop of joy in almost every moment.
What was most important to me was...well, she liked me...a lowly freshman: clueless, pretty, with a potential for being creative.
I don't know where Meg is now, but I imagine her still blowing bubbles.
I hope this blog will be a blog about blowiing bubbles. I take life perhaps too seriously and I think the time has come to blow bubbles...not in a bucket of unpleasant things, although I have no doubt I will find myself in that bucket now and then. I suggest blowing bubbles in life...
My work as a chaplain keeps me around death and suffering more often than the average person. I am not thinking so much about letting go of that work, or of creating a M.A.S.H. unit as portrayed in the Robert Altman movie...but of practicing the presence of play...with God.
God has an incredible sense of humor...and irony. In my first Catholic Catechism last night, I am certain we laughed much more than studying Sacred Scripture.
The line we lobbed at each other for most of the evening was: "Prayer of Humility." Here is an interesting page to get started with the idea of humility:
Do you think you have outgrown the pleasure of blowing bubbles? Well, I dare you to spend the dollar...and blow a few bubbles.
Can't find a job? Blow bubbles.
No boyfriend? Blow bubbles.
Test tomorrow? Blow bibbles FIRST. Then study.
Get your perspective...in reality, our lives last not much longer than a bubble in the history of time. Why not make a rainbow while you are here? Try as you like, you will still be blown about by the winds of change. You will have the company of other bubbles sometimes...and at other times, you'll feel all alone.
Yet somehow, just blowing bubbles...and watching them, clears our minds.And without question...you will bring smiles on the faces of those around you...
Don't ever be too proud to blow bubbles.
I think perhaps the only way to blow bubbles, to experience bliss...in this world that wants to drag us back into the bucket...is by taking on the mind of a child...or perhaps more correctly, the play of a child.
Can't find a job? Blow bubbles.
No boyfriend? Blow bubbles.
Test tomorrow? Blow bibbles FIRST. Then study.
Get your perspective...in reality, our lives last not much longer than a bubble in the history of time. Why not make a rainbow while you are here? Try as you like, you will still be blown about by the winds of change. You will have the company of other bubbles sometimes...and at other times, you'll feel all alone.
Yet somehow, just blowing bubbles...and watching them, clears our minds.And without question...you will bring smiles on the faces of those around you...
Don't ever be too proud to blow bubbles.
I think perhaps the only way to blow bubbles, to experience bliss...in this world that wants to drag us back into the bucket...is by taking on the mind of a child...or perhaps more correctly, the play of a child.
Here, in this space, I hope to Tag, Red Rover, Dodge Ball. Arm Wrestle, Kick the Can...and take on every game I can think of...whatever lets me blow bubbles...catch them with my hands, pop them on my nose...and send them as high in the sky as I can...
Come blow bubbles with me...and if you are willing, tell me how you blow bubbles now and then.
Love, Cindy
