Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Feeling Full

That Full Feeling

Coleman Barks
"When I was a child in Chattanooga, seven or eight years old, I remember sometimes in April when that spring gold light would come in at the end of the day and just be there for about ten minutes ... that gold time, well, I could hardly stand it as a child. I would lie down and hug myself and my mother and father would be playing bridge with the Penningtons. Lying on the floor hugging myself, I'd look at her and say, "Mama, I've got that full feeling again," and she'd say, "I know you do, honey." So I grew up in an ecstatic world in which it was okay to lie on the floor and hug yourself or maybe just sit out on the bluff and watch the river."

~Source: Never in a Hurry by Naomi Shihab Nye
~via

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my but that's a good one, Hope.
Mich

owenswain said...

Our now twenty year used to talk about getting a twinkle in her tummy. She was describing that same full feeling. Those moments were made the more wonderful by the fact that she was between the age of 11 and 14 when so many of that age have long lost such a gentle innocence in self expression.

Adds to the spoon bank, no?

Hope said...

I didn't get that full feeling as a child that I remember Mich but I do get it regularly now. Whenever the sun touches my face I stop and feel as if I am being kissed by God.
Owen - that is all the more precious because of your daughter's age when she got that tickle in her tummy. And yes, it does add to the spoon bank. At least emotionally.