We really don’t have a choice – to occupy life, I mean. Every hum-drum, no-good, very bad day and every bust-at-the-seams brilliant day you are occupying physical time and physical space. Did you know that? Did you know you were a part of an occupation movement? Called life? Nobody asked if you would join and you never signed a petition, but here you are stubbornly occupying this day.

With this realization, do you wonder a little bit what kind of statement you are making? I sure do. That’s why I’m starting this little series called “Occupy Life” … because this occupation can indeed be beautiful and meaningful, right down to the most tiny sliver.

This was a small sliver of this past Sunday, but many slivers make up one 2×4, yes? And many moments make up an occupied life every single day … and this sliver is oh-so-wonderful.

Delaney and Roland are the beautiful children of my good friends from church. I would toss my afternoon plans in an instant to chase them around the rows of frumpy church chairs or to create a world where we walked on rainbows and fought jello monsters with unicorns. You would too, I think.

On Sunday, I walked in to church (uncharacteristically early) and flitted around the fellowship hall, throwing “Oh, hello”s around like cotton candy at a carnival. While I was catching up with someone tall, I noticed two short someones who were waiting for my attention. I turned to see Delaney staring up at me with chocolate eyes and the gentlest grin on her cherub face. She pulled one shoulder in, as children do when they forget they can be uninhibited. But then, as I bent down and settled in for an eye-level conversation, she bloomed. Oh! It was as if she’d been holding the stories in for days and they would have burst out had I waited a moment more. I raced after her as she (with the help of brother Roland) told me about their goings and comings the past week and how they were going to visit their aunt and uncle and how their parents drove “faster.” With Roland, every topic deserves to be explained carefully and every haphazard detail of his imagination finds expression in a (dare I say) most dignified way. I love (LOVE) jumping my reality ship to board Roland’s vessel for a few moments, which is always headed somewhere interesting and emotional and urgent.

After church, my friend Becca told me that Roland asked her, “Is Caroline going to come over here and hug me?”

I couldn’t get there fast enough – where I jumped to my knees to pick up all the delightful little pieces of wonder they had spread around. Roland climbed down from one of the frumpy church chairs when I asked, “Can I have a hug?” and with a most sincere face, he said, “Uh huh!”

This is what occupying life is all about.

I’m camped out in this physical body, from sun-up to sun-down and I want to make sure there is a beautiful ROI.

These moments, my friends, getting hugs and listening to stories and looking into wonder-filled eyes, are a brilliant use of personal funds with an imperishable return.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy