A Burnt Bag of Popcorn

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Shaelyn's grade 2 class at our house (just the girls). Hosting 12 eight year olds seemed like a daunting task so I called on the expertise of my mom in law to help with crowd control. The girls all walked with us from school to our house. Before we took off the pool cover I sat all the kids down and gave them the rules of the pool. The girls played for a long time in the pool but soon the hunger pangs began to settle in and it was time for an after school snack, or should I say an after school buffet feast.

All the children brought a treat to share. There was everything from donuts, fruit, chips, and one mom even bought all the girls Slurpees.The food was gobbled down surprisingly fast. Then they went swimming again. One little girl had lost her invitation and wanted to come but she didn't have her bathing suit, so she needed to go home to get it. She came about an hour late and brought with her a bag of half burnt, half popped microwave popcorn. She jumped in the water (and nearly drowned - Bev and I to the rescue. I jumped in with my clothes on), and was unaware of what a commotion her bag of popcorn caused. Despite the many leftovers from the buffet, this bag of popcorn became the most popular item on the table. Like bees to honey, and flies to sticky paper these girls inhaled pungent smelling popcorn like they hadn't eaten for a week. The odour still resides in my nasal cavity and I am bit sickened by the smell.

As odd as this sounds there is a sense of reality that hit home to me. I am not referring to the gluttony these kids displayed, although it was fascinating to see the consumption that occurred. (My own child would score high on this list). I thought about how in life we are attracted to the sweetness of what life offers. The more we stuff ourselves with material goods the more we think we will be happy, but what we don't realize is what sustains us is that half-popped, scorched bag of popcorn. To be able to find the sweetness of life through our struggles makes us genuine, credible and likable. I have learned this over the past year, especially through the vulnerability of this blog. I was afraid to show my true feelings but by doing so it has opened me up to many new relationships that I thought I would never have. As difficult as the struggle has been our lives, we have acquired a "new taste" that we would have never developed if we didn't have these struggles. I don't know where we would be but being scorched on life's journey has opened ourselves up to many new opportunities.

Yesterday I was thankful for that little girl's contribution to the party. She helped bring perspective to what people really crave in life, a simple gift from the heart.