Thoughts On Bubbles . . .

Last week we introduced the wee one to that childhood joy known simply as bubbles. In the half hour he spent with bubbles, my boy oohed and ahhed. He cooed and giggled. He stared with wide eyes and wonderment. And I was there with my Edward to capture it all on film.

I re-learned - and quickly - the illusive nature of bubbles. So beautiful and transparent with their oil-in-rainbow color, so light and seemingly weightless, the bubbles would roll off the wand pushed only by the breath of my oldest child. And then they were there, dancing merrily on the air, so happy and free, bobbing to and fro as my infant son tried to catch a glimpse and I tried to catch a photograph before the subtle sound of Pop! Pop! Pop! signaled that the bubbles were gone.

The baby would wimper until his big brother worked to recreate the magical bubbles. Over and over, whimpering then bubbles, always ending much too soon for baby, blower and photographer alike.

After a half hour the big brother finally tired. He slowed down long enough for one grand finale and managed to produce The Bubble. The one that made Ollie's body stand still, head fixated, eyes wide. He reached out for it with his chubby little finger, hoping to touch the side of the smooth, glassy orb.

But before he could reach it, it lifted effortlessly off the wand, spent a brief moment in the air and landed quietly on the front of his stroller. It was his for the taking. He paused for the briefest second, reached out, grabbed it, and before he even knew what had happened, all that was left was a small wet footprint of the beautiful bubble. The crying ensued and I comforted my boy as the bubbles were put away for the day.

Now I'm going to wax all philisophical. Prepare yourself.

If your human, you've probably experienced the bubble effect at some point in your life. I'm learning that my life and the lives of others seem to be made up of a series of bubble moments - beautiful, effortless, enjoyable - followed by a series of bubble bursting moments - whimper, cry, deal with the aftermath while staring at the footprint of what was. And it's a cycle. Sweet, bitter. Joy, pain. Up, down. So it goes.

The good news is this: We can always enjoy the bubbles before they're gone. And there will always be bubbles because God wants us to have happiness in our lives. Does this mean life is going to be easy? No. But once a bubble bursts, we truly appreciate it's beauty and we immediately want for more. And He is waiting to give us all that we want, but we have to learn patience during the time it takes for Him to reload the wand and add his divine breath. He will never tire of blessing us, and He will never leave us alone in our trials.