Born Again

18 Weeks

Every day I am inspired by Ren's curiosity and raw openness. Captain Obvious here, but it's true: he's pure. He isn't offended by anything or hampered by guilt or fear or pain... or fear of painful guilt. He seems to feel like he's awesome and everything and everyone else is too. And hilarious. We are all hilarious. Especially sneezing dogs. Which, come on, sneezing is pretty funny. Especially when dogs do it. We shouldn't bless them, we should point, and laugh, and applaud. He's right. It's hilarious.

Once upon a long time ago, I lived in Los Angeles. My mother was visiting and we went to see a show at The Groundlings. To this day we reminisce about a sketch that resonated with us and we still quote it often. A claustrophobic patient admits to a therapist that his greatest fear is he will be physically forced into a box, never to be seen again. Unable to see the good in life, he whines and complains about his imaginary, life-altering fear until finally the doctor gets so fed up she overwhelms him with cardboard and screams:

"STOP IT OR I'LL PUT YOU IN A BOX!!"

And he's cured—realizing he was just one step away from manifesting his worst nightmare.

What if we woke up tomorrow and absolutely everything was new? We have no fear? No fears that drill so deeply within we ironically forge them into our every day—what if? What if we lack the instinct to flinch when a loud noise bursts into our life's soundtrack or to side-step when a person reaches out to shove? What if we have no fear or anger of past hurts—all is forgiven? ALL of it, including how we feel about ourselves. Besides being able to sit up without help, pretending to begin anew might help us rediscover a little thing called joy.

Achoo.