What a Divinely Timed Encounter With a Five Year Old Taught Me About Awe, Wonder & the Value of Play
Hope Infusion Newsletter - October 20th Edition
Greetings Hope Infusion Subscribers,
The last year has been paradoxical – tragically beautiful, gloriously awful, a delicate tapestry of grief interwoven with threads of grace.
My family has faced a multitude of challenges, but the last six months have been especially chaotic and tumultuous.
Challenging times present powerful lessons and profound opportunities for growth. This season of trial has been no exception — teaching me much about surrender, trust, and accepting the generous aid of genuine offers of help.
A trio of earth angels have shown up to render assistance of such a magnitude, sincerity, and depth that I’ve been both humbled and awed by their generosity. They were already dear friends, but in this season they have been tangible manifestations of answered prayer—God with me, embodied in the generous spirit of flesh and blood humans.
This week as we processed a flurry of medical complications, setbacks, and disappointments I was reminded of an encounter with another earth angel, one who was not a friend, nor an acquaintance, nor even an adult.
My writing teacher encourages students to periodically revisit and rewrite previous stories, because as we grow through new experiences, the filter through which we process the past shifts and changes.
The point is not to rehash the past, but to visit it from a higher perspective. We can then reflect upon past events with present wisdom and learn something new through the eyes of who we have become.
A year ago today, I was in Nags Head, North Carolina with my husband on a trip that was a blessing in many ways, but most notably, due to an extraordinary encounter with a not so ordinary five year old.
I first wrote a version of that story last Fall. Today I revisit and reflect anew on that interaction and the lessons it offered, after which I share the full version of a poem I penned that is quoted within the piece.
Thanks as always for subscribing, reading, supporting, and sharing!
Olivia Bethea
A Close Encounter of the Carly Kind
We were swept up in a whirlwind of chaos. It was mid-October 2021, the pandemic was still raging, and it seemed that some of everything that could go wrong, did go wrong — in many areas of life, all at the same time.
My husband and I were emotionally spent, mentally exhausted and unsure until the day before departure that we’d be able to follow through on a planned trip to the Carolina coast.
At times, my life unfolds like a living parable in which I find myself immersed in encounters divinely orchestrated to illustrate spiritual truths. This was one of those times.
Our last minute decision to go, landed me in the right place, at the right time to receive a much needed life lesson from an unlikely little teacher. I walked the beach that afternoon, chatting with my niece by cell phone, and paused at the water’s edge — wading in ankle deep, inhaling salt air that smelled like relief, desiring to feel the ticklish ebb and flow of waves across my feet.
Though I didn’t yet know it, gravity had pulled me into the orbit of a miniature earth angel. A swimsuit-clad personification of joy was headed my way, brimming with grins and giggles. I was so caught up in my phone conversation that I didn’t immediately notice, when she cozied up alongside me — Until she spoke: “Hi, I’m Carly!”
I paused and looked down, as a pint sized human looked up at me. Her eyes spoke of a beautiful soul and her demeanor spoke of an adventurous spirit. Some children wear a smile, but Carly was a smile.
She had an ethereal aura that captured my attention, compelling me to ask my niece to hold, so I could engage with her.
“Hi Carly, how old are you?”
“I’m five!”, she chirped, and held up all 5 fingers of her right hand.
I smiled back at her, “I’m Olivia and I’m 55.”
“Hi Olivia! I’m one 5, you’re TWO 5’s”. She giggled, exaggerating the word “two” as she spoke it.
Her mother gently admonished from nearby, “Carly, don’t bother the lady while she’s on the phone.”
Carly obeyed and stopped talking, but edged closer, beaming up at me in silence, twisting side to side, as she waited impatiently. When I ended the call, she grasped my free hand and began to tug and walk: “Come on Olivia. I’m your friend. Let’s go play!”
Carly was as radiant as the midday sun — bright, buoyant and bold in the invitation to join her in playing, just for the love of fun. Before my mind could fully form a reaction, which was some version of: “What in the actual hell is happening here?”, I was knee deep in surf, as an incoming wave rolled in and crashed before us, spritzing the air with salt water.
Her mother witnessed our drenching, flushed red with embarrassment, and scurried over to apologize: “I’m so sorry,” she said contritely, “She’s an only child, and never meets a stranger.”
She then turned to Carly and said in a calm but firm maternal tone, “Sweetie you can’t just pull people into the water that way.”
Carly met her mother’s gaze with a perplexed stare, still holding my hand: “Mommy, Olivia is my friend. I’m one 5, and she’s two 5’s. We’re playing!”
“Right Olivia?” She squeezed my hand and gave me the side eye, as if to say, “Hey, new friend, back me up, already!”
In a moment that seems surreal in retrospect, I heard my voice speak words to her mother that I do not recall consciously forming:
“You don’t have to apologize. I’ve raised three kids. She’s not bothering me. I’m happy to play with her right here if it’s okay with you.”
Bizarre as this all was, I felt flush with a providential certainty. I knew, without knowing how I knew, that this random beach encounter was not really random at all. I was filled with an unwavering assurance that I was supposed to be playing with this 5 yr old, on this day, at this time.
I trusted that the reason would reveal itself. The greater miracle was that my introverted, not particularly kid-friendly persona, wanted to play with her. I was not a reluctant participant.
Carly interrupted my thoughts with an announcement: “I’m glad I’m your friend!” She then threw both arms around my waist and squeezed with all her 5 yr old might. When she released me, she grabbed my hand again, and led me away from the water.
“Let’s find seashells!”
So we did.
We collected seashells, chased waves, and played in the sand. She engaged me in conversation like we had been best friends forever, and it was the most natural thing in the world for a 5 year old child to interrupt a 55 year old stranger with an invitation to an impromptu play date.
Children often remind us that we were once as carefree of spirit as they are. The eyes of a child are filled with the light of the world, and it’s up to adults to reflect that light back to them. We can only do so, if we’ve kept our own inborn light alive as we’ve matured.
Somewhere amidst the trials, trauma, and tragedies of five decades of life, parts of my light had dimmed. I believe Carly was a pint sized messenger sent to help reignite them.
Her purple swimsuit was emblazoned with a unicorn, which doesn’t seem coincidental in hindsight. In many cultures, unicorns are viewed as symbols of the divinity and magic in each of us. They represent an invitation to reclaim our childhood faith and the ability to truly see the wonders of the world.
She modeled what it looks like to live in the moment, love without fear, and exist unburdened by the prospect of being judged.
She was an embodied manifestation of a line from a poem I once penned about my affinity for the night sky.
“When the world seems chaotic, and out of control, the Night Sky is there to remind me, that no matter what happens, I’m known and I’m loved by a Creator who knows where to find me!”
On that day last fall, I was found on the beach, and invited to play….to immerse myself in awe, wonder, and natural splendor.
I ended the day feeling loved, seen, and held in Divine embrace.
I ended the day grateful that despite the chaos that preceded our departure, we found a last minute way to move forward with our travel plans.
I ended the day in complete confidence that of all the places I could’ve been, I was exactly where I was destined to be!
As the sun slips beneath the horizon at dusk, I see God in the evening moonrise, In the ascent of our radiant night light, the lunar light source that brightens night skies.
The heavens at night are a testament, to divine order that exists in creation. I fix my gaze upward in silence, my mind in reflective contemplation.
My soul overflows with awe and amazement, when I bask in the wonder of night, Lifting my gaze to the moon, stars, and planets, an awe inspiring sight.
Saturn & Jupiter are nearby companions, from the angle at which I can see, Mars, sits apart from these planetary neighbors, emanating a red vibrancy.
Amidst two years of pandemic life, I developed new hobbies and past times, Walking at night with the love of my life, Is a warm weather favorite of mine.
When the world seems chaotic and out of control, the night sky is there to remind me, That no matter what happens, I’m known and I’m loved, by a Creator who knows where to find me!