Sitting in the Middle of This Ecstacy

I had another dream about lions at the door
They weren't half as frightening as they were before

Last summer, Ted got a glimpse of what he thinks heaven's going to be like. When all of his side of the family was in Portland for a wedding, we all gathered for dinner one late afternoon at McMenamins Edgefield. A few of us got there early for a wine-tasting, but by at least an hour before sundown, everyone was together ordering food and pitchers of beer on one of the sloping lawns where picnic tables were set up. The cooking was going in an outdoor kitchen while kids were running around playing. The temperature was perfect and everyone was swapping stories of recent hiking adventures and family updates and jokes and laughter. I looked over at Ted and he was teary. He said this is what heaven is going to look like.

I felt that way today for a moment. Today was the warmest day of the year so far with completely blue skies (in a Portland spring, we relish these days), so all the doors in the house were wide open. I was in the kitchen cooking up batches of home-made babyfood with my favorite kitchen utensil, my hand-held mixer. I love this thing. I have a mild-obsession with soup (okay, more than mild: we have a dream of opening a soup restaurant one day), and this mixer is perfect for making creamy soups.

While I was pureeing peas, spinach, green beans and carrots for the boy, Abe was in his bouncy jumper thing, wearing one of those one-piece summer outfits with a giraffe on it and no shoes. The sound of his feet hitting the floor with each jump felt like the sweetest sound I've ever heard. I could look out the french doors to the backyard to see Ted digging in the dirt and the cats rolling in ecstasy in the fresh holes. The mix CD our friend Carolee made for the L.A. shower was playing, and when I heard these lyrics about being up in the firs where it smells so sweet and being together in eternity, my throat tightened and tears started to spill in the peas.

Have faith, have faith, have faith. Sometimes the heavenly ecstasy grabs a hold of us here in this life, and I think these moments happen more than we realize. It's all around us. He really is.

One of these days we're gonna sail away, sail into eternity...
--Bruce Cockburn