Popcorn Popping

 

There are trees popping with color on the branches in my part of the world these days. 

Some of the colors are white and gently flow in the winds. 

 

Other colors appear to be purple and pink and have come alongside thorns and prickly branches. 

 

I recently came back from a trip where there are rows of beloved pink blossoms that line the waterways. Pink blossoms that represent friendship and reminders to stand in place next to others.

 

Then there is the song from my early years that helps me pause. 

It talks about popcorn popping on a fruit tree and always has me hopping along in my head if not in my steps. 

Perhaps you know this children’s song and have started to sing it with me. 

 

Sing a song every chance you get. They can also bring colors and bright moments back in the blink of an eye.

 

The scents from these three things also bring me pause. 

 

This can also help me think about the many ways that colors and scents pull me back in time. 

Helping me reflect for this minute about moments that have become important. 

 

Did I know they were going to become that way as I lived them? 

 

Perhaps not so I am going to sit with them now. 

 

There are two places that I love to be in the city I live. Going down long roads that feel like a long slide.

 

Can you picture a slide you’ve gone down? 

It could be that hot metal one you had to build up courage to fly down when you were a kid.

 

Or the water slide as a teenager that propelled you forward like a rocket. How did you stay on that one with a jet stream pushing you forward? 

The white water was like popcorn popping.

The white water was like popcorn popping from every angle. 

 

Are you amazed at the slides that may have come into your spaces? What fun it is to let the good times come back.  

 

The roads that feel like slides to me are ones that I took with our son as we floated down the hills from the children’s hospital.

 

We found a steep hill on our way down one time. 

We looked at each other and grinned. 

 

Let’s go!

 

We were off with a slight pop of speed. 

 

Whooooaaaaa he said as we rolled and bumped our way through each block. 

Reaching the end of the hill brought more side-splitting laughs and a sign to do that again after the next appointment. 

 

We began to venture down other paths as I realized there may be more ways to get home from that hospital. 

That is when we found the freeway entrance that also felt like a take-off ramp into space. 

 

We were ready to hold on tight and have fun. 

 

Speed always came into action with the everyday adventures, so this entrance was well played if the traffic was light. 

 

We were able to build up to full throttle around the last bend and feel lighter than air as the merge came into view. 

 

Another set of giggles and the day was complete with a pop of thrills. 

 

How was it possible to find joy after these moments? 

It seemed to be as easy as watching popcorn popping.

It seemed to be as easy as watching the blossoms bloom and the popcorn popping. 

 

I love to watch it happen in real time now. 

 

There is popcorn popping into bowls like this. It comes fresh and sometimes surprises us with a last-minute kernel that is always the one that made us say whoa! 

 

It’s how it has happened in our home for decades. 

 

Making good things to eat with one I hold dear. 

Holding the colors and scents in the corners of my mind. 

Watching for things that I may want to be predictable and yet I also love when that unexpected moment brings joy. 

 

It is later that I can sit with it, look for how the thrills also taught me to become resilient.

 

That may be when I am able to sit with how the one I came down the hills and took off into space shared his essence with me. 

Resilience became a part of us both. 

Do you have good memories of things that can pop open?

Do you have good memories of things that can pop open in front of you like these simple yet complex ones? 

 

Here is what I have come to know. 

 

Any time I come along these streets now, I look over with a grin for a tall boy who had favorite books that come in the car with us. 

I still hold on tight and say whoa as the curve comes in front of me. 

 

The grin is welcome every time, my friends.