Tuning in

I am a firm believer that even in the eyes of chaos, there is hope. I suppose I would begin to "tune out" a voice that I heard repeating herself often, "Handwashing time", "Clean up time", "Story time", etc. I try to mix it up a bit and throw in the odd, high pitched and whimsical fairy voice in hopes that I will be mistaken for some lovely fairy but it doesn't work often. Today it seemed everyone was tuning me out a lot and what felt like 133 days, was a morning filled with deep breathing, counting to ten and laughter--sometimes there is nothing left but laughter.

12 noon finally arrived. I served a simple but tasty lunch and there was immediate calm. They all sat at the table in silence, filling their mouths with great pleasure and smiling from time to time with satisfaction. I stood against the counter and began to sing softly. I was in a blissful state. I got caught up in my song and turned to see four little faces staring at me. This time they weren't tuning out, they were tuning in. Completely. We were in that moment together. We exchanged grins and they asked me to sing again.