April 22

I had a strange morning. After I dropped Brady in his classroom, I wandered around the campus looking for the director. As I walked by the toddler play area, a little girl called out (completely randomly, it seemed...) "hey, is your name Sherry?" I was (understandably) startled; I had no idea who she was and don't think I'd seen her before that moment. I stopped in my tracks, whirled around to be sure she was talking to me, faced her again, and said that yes, my name is Sherry. Then I paused and asked how she knew that. She shrugged. Then she told me that she has a little girl named Sherry in her class who isn't very nice sometimes. I told her that sometimes, people can have bad days and aren't as nice as they could be, but that doesn't make them bad people, per se. She said okay, and I told her to have a good day and walked on. I was kind of jarred by the strangeness of the experience, but very quickly realized that God had spoken directly to me through this little girl. No one likes to admit it, but I'm not as nice as I could be sometimes, and God called me out on it in pretty bold fashion. That's Strange Item number one.

The second unusual experience followed a few minutes later. The director finally arrived bearing trays of drinks for the teachers, and I volunteered to deliver them. The last of the bunch went to Holly, who was Logan's teacher for his final year of school. I've probably mentioned it before, but his picture is on the wall in her classroom. I said hi, handed her the drink, and turned to leave, blowing a kiss to the photo as I reached to open the door. And then I tuned in to the music playing in the background: it was "Life is a Highway" from "Cars."

I was floored, and marveled over how incredibly weird it was that that song was playing at that moment.

Two pretty bold experiences for an otherwise mundane Wednesday morning. Both blessings. Both received with appreciation and awe.