It’s a rare Sunday evening with no school on Monday. To celebrate, we’re having a “pizza party” in the living room, the six of us gathered around the lap top with paper plates filled with pizza and chips. The older kids, my husband and I line up along the old leather couch and the three-year-old twins sit in front of us in little plastic chairs, their plates resting on the old scarred piano bench.
The kids watch the movie and my husband I alternate between watching the movie and watching our children. We share looks over their heads as entertained by their perceptions of the show as we are by the movie itself. Then this little exchange, so precious and sweet, takes place between the twins:
“Yours yummy?” Isaiah asks, holding a sour cream and onion potato chip in one hand, his faced turned toward his brother who doesn’t hear him.
“Yours yummy, Yevi?” he persists, raising his already loud little boy voice and replacing the unpronounceable “L” of Levi with a “y.”
“Huh?” his brother finally replies, turning to look him in the eye.
“Yours yummy?” Isaiah wants to know.
“Yeah, yummy!” Levi replies with unmistakable enthusiasm. “Sometimes me dip it on my pizza like this,” he adds, demonstrating his method of scraping a chip across the top layer of pizza.
“Yeah,” says Isaiah, turning back to the show with the satisfaction of their shared pleasure evident in his voice.
Witnessing this from behind, my husband I smile with our hands over our mouths, our hearts savoring the bond of companionship so deep, so sweet, in ones so little. We’re delighted by their delight, our hearts awakened to joy through this small moment of pleasure shared.
What small moments of delight have you experienced lately?
Thank you for sharing this small moment of joy with us. It is so easy to miss and rush right past such moments especially with young children Thankyou for including the details that the room was a bit messy and you were eating pizza and chips. It is helpful to me to see you relax and enjoy the good in what you are able to do instead of trying to make something different fit when it doesn’t really. I hope this makes some kind of sense.
thank you for sharing.
bless you,
Susan
With four children “doing what we’re able to do” is becoming a way of life and I think it actually is a gift because it does really free us up to BE in these moments. I’m so thankful for the gift of being able to actually “see” my kids because I know this is something so many people regret later in life. Thanks for commenting, Susan.
I love this part so much! “our hearts savoring the bond of companionship so deep, so sweet, in ones so little. We’re delighted by their delight, our hearts awakened to joy through this small moment of pleasure shared.”
Yes, I noticed that after I wrote it, how there were two layers of delight in the story, ours and theirs. I guess delight multiplies.
Oh, this brought back sweet memories of my own children sharing those seemingly insignificant moments which stay forever in our hearts and minds. The “little” is the best!
Blessings!
I like to think of the “little,” Martha as being like gathering manna, something to be found and savored every day, every moment. Thanks for commenting 🙂
Thanks, Kelly, for sending this wonderful, small story to me – I’m honored that you’re here today.
Thank you for welcoming me, Diana. It’s good to be with you.