this was just a moment in the woods

There was a time in high school when I couldn't get enough of Steven Sondheim's "Into the Woods." Not only do I idolize Bernadette Peters (probably to an ubiblical degree) but Sondheim's writing is phenomenal. The music is great, but as I would like it, the words are even better. I found the lyrics running through my head this morning as I contemplated small moments during the last week that have been minor flashpoints in my life.

"This was just a moment in the woods... and if life were made of moments, then you'd never know you had one."

The last phrase captures both the moment and the life all at once; they each define the other. Even thinking that I don't have much in life, God gives me small glimpses into what could have been... but for the grace of God go I. "The slotted spoon doesn't hold much soup, but it can catch the potato."

Shelly and I were down with the cult kids a couple of nights ago when we had a rather lengthy encounter with an extremely drunk woman. Her friends abandoned her on a bench in front of the cafe and she was so inebriated she literally couldn't walk. After an hour of incredibly weird conversation, a couple of trips inside, taking off of shoes, and ordering a turkey reuben, we got her safely back with the people she belonged. Now I understand the whole avoid drunkeness thing. How scary it is to be alone, and lost.

"But no one is alone, truly- no one is alone. Sometimes people leave you, halfway through the wood- others may decieve you; you decide what's good. You decide alone, believe me, no one is alone."

Tomorrow marks two years since one of the bravest women I knew, Katie Kobelski, left us in the wood. A long talk with an old friend reminded me last night, no one is alone. In these woods, we may lose our way, our mother, or our cow. But no one is alone.