Cocoon People

Let me first start off by saying I am using my little, tiny, microscopic mini computer. The key board is 2 inches wide and the screen must be only 5 inches wide (alas, I exagerate!). There is no spell check (which I desperately need when I write!!) So, up front, I may ... I will ... have many mispelled words and horrible spacing issues but it's what I've got today and I'm going to make the best of it! (Chris has the adult computer.)

This weekend was an Elledge Girl Fest. Parker had an all-day tournament in Bratislava on Saturday. This was the last basketball tournament of the season. It was a lot of fun driving a van full of middle-school girls! I learned a new word: Wacked. I'm now trying to use my new word in as many converstations and contexts as possible. For example, because I'm using my little baby computer for this post ... it's wacked!

This weekend Addison had the privledge of singing in an honor choir comprised of students from 10 different countries from all over Europe. Sunday they performed at a wonderfully historic church, Saint Francis of Asissi, to an audience that had their buns warmed by pew seat heaters! Really! It was rather chilly for this time of year in the old church due to the massive concrete walls. Much to our joy, as we sat down our bums experienced warmth ... that later prooved too much warmth during the concert. Let's just say we all have a new visual for "hot cross buns"!

Despite my extreeme pride and joy over and about my girls activities this weekend, the highlight of my weekend was my Sunday morning walk. Now that the weather is nice, I feel compelled to be outside. Yesterday was unusually warm and sunny. As I've come to discover about myself, I need the outdoors. I need to be in the outdoors. I have to see plants, smell dirt, kick rocks, sit on grass, and smell like a puppy from having been outdoors. It makes me tick.

Since moving, and having no outside garden or any patios, it has been way too long since I've been outdoors for any extended period of time and my inner nature girl was calling. I took to the streets. I began walking. An hour and half later I ended up back home, energized, refreshed and feeling back in touch with me (ok, yes ... and smelled like a puppy!).

My first leg of my journey took to me Stadt Park. Literally translated, Stadt Park means City Park. This is a great park located in the heart of the city. There are great walking and biking paths, ponds, ducks, great gardens, cafe's, and the typical tourists that flock to see a gold statue of ... someone famous. Anyway, I had never really explored this area so I did. It was quaint. I loved it. However, upon first entering the park from the east entrance, where most people were not entering the park as it it not the main entrance, I saw several homeless vagrants taking advantage of the nice weather. As they lay on park benches, I began to notice commonalities: all were snuggled under sleeping bags or under blankets, all had their faces hidden, all had their feet exposed, all had their belongings either tucked underneath them or next to them in carts, and they all smelled. To me, they resembled human cocoons.

I was so transfixed by this sight I choose to sit close by them and just do a bit of observing. Here's what I saw:

1. Most park visitors either ignored them or stared unashamedly at them.
2. No one else sat near them.
3. None of the cocoon people seemed to care or notice that they were in public.
4. It was very apparent that what pitiful belongings they had, they guarded with extreeme caution.

I found myself wanting to strike up a conversation with one of the cocoon people. I even whispered a prayer that God would allow me to have an encounter with one of them if I was supposed to. However, none of them stired. It was midmorning and they all slept, undisturbed, unconcerned, and unprotected.

I couldn't get them off my mind. Sensing it was time for me to move on, I did, but not without saying some prayers for these human-like cocoons. I didn't know what to pray ... but prayed anyway.

As I often do, I see things in parallels. I began to look at the cocoon people on the park benches as a great modern day parable for most presentable people in the world today. Those with regular paychecks and those I discovered in the park yesterday aren't really so different.

We all kinda create our own cocoon don't we? We all snuggle under something to hide from the world, to shut out reality. We hide our faces from something ... because we fear what we see or we fear that what we see will require something of us. We all "expose our feet" sometimes ... exposing small parts of us that allow us to test the water around us to see how safe it is. We all hold tightly to our "baggage". It may not be worth much, but it's ours. We fear someone will take it and although it may not serve any purpose, it makes us feel secure.

If you subscribe to the Biblical world-view that humans are created by God, all equal and loved ... seeing the cocoon people yesterday made me want to examine my own cocoon. I don't want to live life that way ... huddled, covered, hidden away from the world. I don't believe we were created to live that way. I want to bust out of that cocoon, sprout my wings, and fly! (I know, it's corny but it works!)