Vitamin Soothe

My daughter is having one of those days.

She probably got it from me, the whining, angry, angst of it seeping out of her pores and into her demeanor like a cheap and stale perfume.

I take her into my lap to comfort her, but she will have none of it.

"No!" She squirms and tries to escape, her efforts meeting with my calm resistance as her father and I remind her that a struggle will not elicit the results she desires.

I feel her unahppiness as she writhes against me, and I let my own mind wander to the similar state within my own soul.

No! I holler impetuously, far too often, to my Father. I will not be comforted! I will not be made well!

In the present, my husband offers a solution. "Once you can be loving, you can get down," he says. She scowls and refuses his offer, so I try another track.

"Can I have a hug?" I ask her sweetly.

"NO!"

"Can you give me a hug?"

"NO!"

I settle in for the long haul. Her situation is strangely familiar.

"You'd be so much happier," my husband advises, "if you'd just stop resisting Mommy and Daddy."

I feel the echo in my heart. How often do I refuse the comforts of my Father, refuse to accept His gestures of love or return them with any amount of grace?

My daughter and I struggle through this encounter - until finally, she senses defeat. We hug, she and I. She ends up offering comfort to me with the gift of a band-aid for an imagined wound on my finger. At once, as if sensing the conflict is over, she slides off my lap and asks me if I'll lie on her bed with her.

We settle in. I sense a deep peace in this moment. She lays across from me, her head pillowed on an enormous plus butterfly. We share secrets, her blanket, more hugs. Now we're not simply rocking in a chair, but investing in the most peaceful and intimate of pastimes, a side-by-side siesta to brighten our day. And in this small moment, I feel a deeper sense of intimacy as well.

Stop struggling, I hear my divine Parent suggest. Let Me hold you. We can comfort each other, you know. And once you've mastered the art of grace in this area of closeness, you'll find yourself moved to a whole new plane of intimacy with Me. You'll finally sense deep-down peace.

As I lie on the bed with my daughter, my house-slippers fall from my feet. They land on the floor with two clumps, and I sense the rightness of their removal. This is my own burning bush bush, my own holy ground. My need to find peace has been choking, but I sense that at last I've made some headway. The road to the future may be rocky, but finally, it seems to have come clear. Relax. Be soothed. Settle in. Accept the gifts I am offered. And soon, very soon, I'll find greater ones than even these.

My daughter and I fall into a companiable silence. We are friends again, the two of us. And the whole world seems friendlier because of it.