pieces and ponderings

As I drank the last sip of coffee from my mug this morning, I had to smile.  It wasn’t the coffee that made me smile, though coffee can certainly do that, it was the picture of a smiling fish in the bottom of my coffee cup.  The fish’s name is Herman…it says so on the mug.  On the outside of the mug is a cartoon of Moses parting the Red Sea and on one side of the dry pathway through the sea is a wall of water with three very large, very hungry-looking fish in it.  On the other side of the dry ground, in another wall of water, is a little fish looking across the chasm at the big, hungry fish.  The little fish is sticking out his tongue.  The caption under the cartoon reads, “Herman catches a lucky break.”

The cartoon makes me laugh.  And as good as the cartoon is; I love that Herman is also painted on the bottom of the inside of the mug.  Sometimes I forget that Herman is there on the bottom of my coffee mug…until the last drop of the mug’s contents is drained into my mouth…and then I see Herman and I smile just like I did this morning.

And what’s even better than Herman smiling at the bottom of my cup is remembering the person who gave me the funny mug.  She smiles a lot too…just like Herman who had escaped from hungry predators.  And so, even though Herman made me smile…and the warm coffee made me feel warm…and I was drinking the warm coffee on my front porch which also made me feel a little warm because it’s August in the South…remembering my smiling friend made me feel even smilyier (I just made that word up and it works for me) and warmer on the inside.  It made me feel connected to my friend.

I like feeling connected to the people I love.  I hate feeling disconnected.  Feeling disconnected makes me feel really yucky and out-of-sorts.  Feeling connected makes me feel like I can leap tall buildings in a single bound and outrun speeding trains.

I was drinking coffee on my front porch this morning so I could watch the butterflies that are gathering in numbers right now on our Lantana (see earlier post).  After reading my blog post about butterflies the other day, my Aunt wrote to tell me that there are some butterflies outside her window that she has been watching lately.  Watching my butterflies now makes me feel connected to my dear Aunt who watches her butterflies.  When we can’t physically be with those that we love…feeling connected is the next best thing I think.

My daughter who has been away at college for almost two weeks sends me texts every once in a while that look like a little owl face.  I send her one back that looks like a platypus face (yes, I can do that).  When I receive one of her owl faces I feel connected to her because the owl face reminds me of her favorite singer, Owl City, and that reminds me of the many HOURS that we have listened to Owl City together…it reminds me of her and I like being reminded of my daughter.

Connections…they are important.  Feeling connected to the ones we love is the next best thing to being there with them.  Connections…they are worth making and keeping.