Remember

On the way to church this morning, I stopped again to see the swans of Murrell Road.  Judging by the dramatic increase in cars recently, I figured the babies were out and about.  I love that baby swans are called cygnets, which makes me think of the word signet, which makes me think of royalty.  And by the number of people running to take pictures, holding their massive cameras tightly in their hands, you would have thought it was Prince William and Kate here in Brevard County.

The sight of so many people, rushing to take pictures of these swans on the way to work brought a smile to my face.  I started laughing when I saw a man in scrubs dart from his car with a camera.  Hopefully he wasn’t holding up anyone’s surgery. 

The swans were swimming away from me, so I picked up the pace, hoping to get in front of them and the crowd of photographers.  Once I did, I turned around and began walking backwards, snapping picture after picture.

More and more people began crowding around me and a woman commented that she thought the swans were leaving the nest.

“I think they’re fleeing the paparazzi,” I said.

I was so excited to be there in that moment, taking pictures of little babies that could never ever be considered ugly (epic fail Ugly Duckling) that I didn’t notice until I stopped how out of breath and dizzy I was.

Once at church, I found it impossible to get in any kind of prayerful, calm state of mind.  I was too anxious to get back home and see the swan pictures up close.  Still I stayed at church taking a picture of an osprey sitting at the top of the dead tree frequented by vultures and hawks.  It wasn’t until I got home that I saw there was a cardinal sitting at the top of the tree, no doubt serenading the osprey.

This morning I felt a kid, privy to special moments, gone-in-a-second moments, moments of whimsy where everyone forgets to look dignified and runs to see swans like they were running to the tree Christmas morning.

My prayer for you this morning is that you find something today that makes you feel like a kid again, that makes you so excited to see it that you almost stumble over yourself to get there.