stringing buttons

of all things to do......

i found myself stringing buttons tonite.

huh???

i had got this pack of brightly colored plastic buttons.
like something you'd get for a kids craft project.
don't ask me why.
i just liked them.

i had plans for tonite that didn't work out.
and i was okay with that.
the idea of sitting quietly appealed to me.

the news of the tsunami has been overwhelming.

i lit a candle and sat down on the couch and started putting
button after button on my a string. with each button i thought
of a life that was lost today. i didn't have nearly enough
buttons. and i knew that. slowly, i placed a button on the string
and thought of today.

the buttons seemed too bright and happy for what i was thinking.
and it occurred to me that life was like that.
bright and happy and bleak and miserable.
it was everything.

quietly, alone, i strung the buttons, glancing at the candle
and holding the world in my heart.

i am truly overwhelmed at the loss the world suffered today.

the way i'm choosing to honor it is to hold some silence for just a bit.

i feel i need to.
the only words i want to speak now are to tell people how much
they matter to me. how much i care about them.

please hold that in your heart for me.
it matters to me.

and for this weekend, i leave you in a silence honoring the loss
of today.