Delight

My mind jumps. ALWAYS. It jumps from laundry to a 6-year old’s question to a text message to Facebook to a baby crying to my job to vacuuming to church. In like a minute. And then back again.

Especially when I am flipping through social media, I am not focused. My brain hops from friends I have known since childhood to work acquaintances to friends from college to my parents’ friends. From California to Costa Rica. From political commentary to a mommy meme. From humor to grief to TMI. It’s hard for me to keep track of all the directions my thoughts go in. It is social-information overload, and my joy at one post is immediately replaced by worry or disgust at the next. Sometimes I breeze by things, thinking I will go back to spend a little more time reading them later, but by the time two minutes have passed, I have no idea what was so important that I wanted to read. My mind is spread thin!

Enter three-year old son. (I’m not a “sun”, Mommy! I’m your kid.) Right. Enter three-year old kid. He ponders everything. Studies every angle. Makes every obvious comment possible. But his mind doesn’t jump like mine. He stays on one thing at a time. And I aspire to be more like him.

A cute video of a friend’s family pops up on my screen, and I watch, smiling. My kid sees me smiling and comes over to check it out. I show him the video, and then prepare to continue scrolling.

I want to watch it again!

Okay, here you go.

Again!

Okay…

Ag- I know, I’m already pushing play.

A dozen views later, and I warn him that this next time will be the last time. When it’s over, he walks away contentedly – not even realizing how many more cute videos he could be missing! And the pictures! And the news! All the things!!

He’s still smiling to himself about the one video.

And I’m smiling too, as I watch him. What a gift it is to be able to delight in one thing, without immediately turning to the next thing. To enjoy and savor one humorous or sweet moment without cutting it off abruptly. Without jumping around from task to task, post to post, person to person.

I look down at the tiny human who has been using my legs as a jungle gym for the past few minutes. Her face explodes in a YOU-ARE-THE-BEST-THING-EVER smile.

Ahhhh…. My brain slows to a halt, and for a moment it stops jumping. I would replay this smile over a dozen times if I could! There. That’s delight. And my mind is all in one piece again.