for those wondering about the back story with the
last gallery posting, it is this.
it was the day of bella's annual save the children carnival, her third. she did her recruiting. she completed her planning. she hung her flyers. on the morning of, when we pulled into the lot where the carnival happens, there were three large construction dumpsters on the blacktop of her space, consuming more than a third of the lot and blocking the spaces reserved for half of her booths. upon seeing this i turned to her. her unblinking face was frozen in disbelief at what she was seeing. then, her face began to soften. it continued to sag until tears were seconds away. i put my hand on her knee and said it would be ok. we still had lots of space and would adjust. predictably, she said space or not it was still ruined with these giant, ugly things right in the space. her sound logic continued as she quickly adding strong observations like "who wants their children playing on a construction site" or "they're taking all the shady spots".
after stopping the car, we walked to the dumpsters to see what was in them. after climbing up and peering over the edge we were greeted by this (
see photo). the carnival was on the day before father's day and that cardboard box was front and center. i nudged bella with my elbow, pointed at the box and said, "you're all good. grandma nyla has your back."
i could see bella, still rather flummoxed at the luck, dismissed my comment. as we hopped down from the dumpsters i stopped her and said:
bella. what? really? you don't believe me. you don't believe that sign as a marker that you're going to be ok? there are three giant construction dumpsters here for a school renovation. you're telling me that when we climb up there to look in them, amid all construction rubble is a box that says "happy father's day -- nyla" is not a sign. how many people in your life have you met named nyla? how in the world does that box get there when it's not even fathers day? of all the places that box could have landed, it is right in front of where we climb up, sitting between you and i, not to mention situated in a way where we could see it perfectly. if you think all those things just happened in your most trying moment of the year, you go right on and think that, but i'd suggest you take it as the thing it most appears to be—a sign that everything is going to go just fine?"
i don't know if she ever believed me or not but things did go just fine.
you may not believe me either. if so, how many people have you met in your life named nyla?
