For Collyn and Marinne

Yesterday, Paul yelled from the front door, Hey come look at these purple flowers! I think your lilac bush is blooming! Lilacs? In mid-September? Nah.

But the picture above is visual proof of something quite unexpected: the lilacs are blooming amidst brown, curled-up leaves and the onset of fall. Honestly, for a moment we couldn’t trust our eyes, so Paul grabbed the branch, bent it towards us, and we sniffed. Sure enough, the sweet scent of lilacs confirmed what we thought we were seeing.

In the Sanctuary of the Unexpected, lilacs bloom in September. From afar, they tease you with a hint of violet. And then, upon approach, they shout Surprise! And you are–gloriously, gleefully–surprised. For who could imagine such an unexpected gift on a gray day?

As the mother of four–two adopted and two birth children–I have been schooled in the unexpected. The dry bones of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches shoved under beds and left to atrophy, the outfits-we-chose-on-our own (such medleys of colors and textures your eyes have never seen!), and the spontaneous and wholly unfiltered remarks: Where are his teeth? Why does she have blue hair? How can he walk with pants like that?

Indeed, when it comes to my children, I have been schooled and re-schooled in the unexpected. But there is another room in the Sanctuary of the Unexpected, a lovely, private room in which you stash away your children’s unexpected words, deeds, and sentiments, so that you may take them out on another day and experience the wonder all over again.

At age 19, my daughter, Marinne, committed to the Air Force. After months of deliberating, she made up her mind, contacted the recruiter, and began preparing for her new life. On the day she left for basic training, her father and I took her to meet the bus that would carry her from rural Iowa to Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. Shouldering her gear, she hugged us, reminded us that she would have little contact with us for some time, and walked to the bus.

How did that 95 pound young woman walk with such resolve? From what deep well did she draw that strength? Who was this person? In the Sanctuary of the Unexpected, your daughter becomes a woman before your very eyes as she climbs the steps to a bus. And amidst your tears, you are astonished at the incredible life you have born and now release. Weeks later when she graduates, you enter that private room in the Sanctuary of the Unexpected and line the mantle with photographs of your daughter in uniform, standing resolute among fellow airmen. And when she goes on to carve a life for herself in Montana, hundreds of miles away from her home, you add photographs of her new family and home. Unexpected, but magnificent nonetheless.

The other evening, my daughter, Collyn, was sharing a story of one of her student’s responses to a writing assignment she had given. As she talked, I was taken aback at the words she was using to describe what had happened and how she had responded. In the Sanctuary of the Unexpected, you may be amazed at the power and beauty of genetic transfer. How did she think to assign this? From where did that sensitive, insightful response to student work come? And the sheer joy that oozed from each word and shone from her eyes? I heard my father’s words and felt his very presence as she spoke. From my father, the teacher, to his daughter, the teacher, to his granddaughter, the teacher, the transfer of word-love continues. In the Sanctuary of the Unexpected, these moments are treasure-worthy. In your private room, you record them in a leather-bound journal with handmade paper, for such moments deserve no less.

Perhaps the best thing about the Sanctuary of the Unexpected is that you simply cannot predict what will happen next. Just when you think you have stowed away enough treasures for a lifetime, someone or something shouts Surprise! And like the birthday girl who has flung open the door to her own surprise party, your jaw drops, you instantly lose your bearing, and you give yourself fully to the unexpected.

I admit that as a grandmother, I do really (REALLY) like the unexpected, unfiltered remarks from my grandchildren. Just yesterday, Gracyn asked me if I ever gave cowboy handshakes. Cowboy handshakes? I asked. Yes, you know the kind where you spit in your hand and then shake. I like to keep my salivas (plural) in my own mouth, don’t you? Smiling behind my eyes (only), I said, Yes, I like to keep my salivas in my own mouth, too. 

Still, I count my blessings when I can enter that private sanctuary where I have stored lovely unexpected words and deeds. My daughters, Marinne and Collyn, have given me so many of these. And I expect that in the ordinary days to follow, I will once again hear the words and see the acts that announce Surprise! The Sanctuary of the Unexpected is like this, and I invite you to enter. Daily.