roksolana-zasiadko-112871“Look at the light in the trees, it’s a beautiful morning, isn’t it?”

“Yes”, she said, “It is beautiful.”

It wasn’t too long after this that I was a sobbing mess in the driver’s seat of my car, hauling it out of the suburbs, to get my daughter to kindergarten. I usually don’t cry during my morning my commute but that dastardly Mr. Steve the Music Man caught me off guard by playing a flawless cover of Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers” by Audrey Spillman on his Early Birds radio show.

I was an emotional wreck for the rest of the ride.

Tributes to Tom Petty have been abundant in the last few days, but there was something about this song, at this time, in this place, that broke me down.

What did me in was when I made the mistake of glancing in my rearview mirror. Sunlight was streaming through my daughter’s already golden hair as she gazed through the window. I knew in that moment that I couldn’t keep her safely buckled in the backseat of my car forever. A day is coming, and coming way too soon, when I’ll let her wander because I love her so much.

Tom’s words and music, the way he captured the pain and joy of letting someone you love go, came crashing down upon me in my Honda Accord as I thought about the little life I was ferrying to school.

Richard Rohr taught me to look for ‘thin places’ in life. These are times, experiences, even locations, where the perceived chasm between heaven and earth is taken away and the two are one, back the way it’s supposed to be.

I was caught terribly off guard this morning when the cabin of my sedan became such a place.

Thanks Audrey and Mr. Steve.