We celebrated Lizzie's fourth birthday on Sunday. And on Tuesday, Lizzie and I lunched at my favorite restaurant in Colorado Springs, Shuga's. Lizzie's eyes traveled up to the ceiling where large-size orgami swans hung, and to the bright colored silk gerber daisies hanging from ribbon on the window pane. As she took the room in, I took her in. Lizzie has blue eyes that you can swim in for a while, soft summer blond hair that I could rub my nose in for hours and most of all, Lizzie is bold in her living.

As we sat at our small round circular table, waiting for our applesauce cake and milk, Lizzie slid the coke bottle with tulips aside and reached out her hands. I grasped them, our arms stretched long across the table and we both had excited grins from ear to ear. In that precious moment, I asked her, "Lizzie, what is it that you love most about life?" She scrunched up her nose, squinted her eyes and took on a thinking pose for a second or two. Then she answered, "Donuts."

It's so simple with Liz.  Lizzie experiences God in everything, like most young children. It's us adults that wait for God in the fireworks, or those big AHA! moments. But Lizzie, she experiences God in everything. God doesn't choose what circles to hang in, God's in it all. Even donuts.

Lizzie eats Life up. And life eats her up. This life is a gift, for however long we are given it. So, why not experience God in everything? Even a donut. Even in someone you really, really don't like. Or a brilliant, blooming fruit tree?

How do we eat life up?, you might ask. I say, return to your body. Our bodies don't need any help in experiencing life around us, what our bodies need, is our attention. And if you have children, or children in your life, do EVERYTHING you can to affirm their connection to their bodies. Just attending to your body is enough of a teaching. When you honor the body, you affirm the heart and soul of who we are. And, you honor the source from which we came.

From The Instruction Manual for Receiving God, by Jason Schulman
Do you want to eat something delicious? Then eat the whole apple.
If you eat only the core, you are foolish. If you eat the skin alone,
you will go hungry. If you peel the apple, exposing its inner fruit with no obstacle to your teeth, you will miss the crisp snap that is also part
of the experience of eating an apple.
My advice, let God taste all of you. Don’t be ashamed that you have a fruitless core, a hard skin, and a soft pulp that turns brown in its
unprotected state. If you let God eat you up completely,
God will be your constant companion. Yum!

 

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