A "Come Together" "Let it Be" Kind of Day

For like the last week, I've stayed up too late and recent mornings have come a little cruel. My sleep-deprived mind wants to get things started even when the rest of me is sayin' another hour or two of sleep is what I really need. I'm getting over a cold, I've been reading a good book set in Leningrad during WWII, and that coupled the recent posting of pictures from a year I spent overseas in Estonia, has my mind in crazy places. I'm a wee run down. Even my silly old mind, and stuff.

So, this morning started off with a snugly blanket of blah. The coffee couldn't get there quick enough and when it did, blah. It's the end of the month and we're low on groceries. Wyatt, my baby, but not so much a baby anymore kind of decided to potty train this week, for the love. This is a good thing, but a consuming thing. Y'all know how it goes.

Deciding it was time to at least remedy the grocery situation, we headed to Sam's. Three of us ate lunch for under five bucks. I'd heard rain was on the way today so we got on with it. After I wiped the cinnamon sugar grit off my boys' hands and cheeks, we shopped. It was a big trip. I bought Pull-Ups for Wyatt. I was kind of sad that I think I bought my last box of diapers last time and didn't know it would be my last time. Samples were at every corner, but none of it looked good to me. I was proud of Thomas who used his manners and said his "may I's" and "thank you's." Even Wyatt did too, usually with a friendly wave goodbye.

The cart was full, the list fulfilled and as I found a spot in a check-out lane, I noticed that the sound of the place had changed. I thought it was the big daddy air conditioners coming on to do their job in cooling that massive place off. Nope. Rain. Lots of gulleywashin' rain. The girl handed me my ticket and I turned around and saw nothin' but rain.

Well, now it's nap time, so we need to get home. The parking lot is full of inch-deep rain puddles. People are gathering in the front to wait it out. I found a spot right along with them to do the same. How in the world, I think, am I going to get these kids and these groceries to the car?

And then, a lady in a Mr. Burger uniform runs in, drenched. Once inside, she looks at me, pats her hair and smiles. It's pointless to fix it. She even laughed a little. I sympathetically smiled back in the "yes, it sure got ya, hon" kind of way. She smiles even bigger and walks on.

Then, two capri-pants, flip flop-wearing ladies in their mid-thirties, I'd say, come up to the store opening to assess. They're friends and talk kind of loudly that they're about to run for it. They laugh and bolt through the parking lot soaking their hair-sprayed hair-dos. Two good ole boys coming up behind me watch this whole thing and those ladies get soaked and they started laughing. Everyone was laughing. No one was grumbling, I noticed.

So, I'm still waiting. I watch a few more come and go. Then, a mother with two boys, both a little older, comes up and taps me. She says, "Do you need me to watch them so you can go get the car?" I don't know why, but that was so sweet to me I almost wanted to start crying. I looked at the boys and Thomas looked at her oldest son, sizing him up. I said, "Thank you so much. That would be a huge help."

She introduces herself to my kids, I take another look back and squat next to Thomas and tell him this lady is here to watch him while I run and go get the car and I asked him to "watch Wyatt" for me. He's all for it.

I sprint through the parking lot full of puddles in my Chacos and capri jeans. My gray t-shirt, toes and arms are wet by the time I get to the car. As I backed up, my heart was pumping and I felt adrenaline rushing through me. I pulled up to the front of the store and geared up to hop back out again and grab the boys, one by one. I got them both buckled in and then ... there were the groceries. So, on trip number three back into Sam's, I grab the basket and wheel it to the back where I'd popped the back window. I start unloading. By now, the cardboard boxes of Pull-ups, oatmeal, razors, etc. are pimpling with water saturation and I am no longer wet, I'm soaked. One more sprint back into the store to return the cart and then I'm in the car, strapping myself in.

Deep breath had, we're ready to go home now. At the stop light, I touch my iPod screen and it scrolls to the Beatles. Great. Sounds great to me. I push play.

Thankfully, my boys really are pretty good in the car. They don't say much, they listen to music well, and watch out the windows, typically. "Let it Be" comes on and Mr. McCartney's preaching at me now. I'm not gonna lie, I'm singin' too. Don't be embarrassed for me, I live out in the country.

On the drive I was thinking back over my experience at Sam's and how it felt like everyone had just "Come Together" and those lyrics (although not so much about coming together the way I'd experienced it at Sam's) and song play in perfect soulful key in my mind. And now through my speakers, "Let it Be" was up almost as high as my volume would let it go. It really was a "Come Together" "Let it Be" kind of day, I thought to myself. And that was just what I needed.

Here are the lyrics to "Let it Be." Have yourself a read:

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, .....

And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me,
shine until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, .....