Praise The Lord

I prayed today. Yup. True. I wasn't even in dire straits. I accidentally attended a prayer group at the park this morning. Totally did not see this coming.

Usually I only pray in church (which isn't very often cuz I'm a very bad Catholic), or when I am in extreme distress. For example: when my kid was getting stitches. 

I dropped Gracie off at school, and since school just started, it is chaos at the drop off until the new people learn  how to do it and stay out of the way of the ebb and flow of the parents who know how. So, I decided to walk her into the school instead of dropping her off in the car-line. Plus, I was bringing a donation for her classroom (a clock) and I wanted to make sure the teacher got it.

So, there I was.

I said "Good Morning" to a mom who I got to know a bit last year. Her child is in a different class than my kid this year. She said "Good morning!" Seeing I had Libby and Charlie with me she added, "I'm headed to a playdate at the park, would you like to join us?" Sure! She told me which park and we headed right over. Gotta do these park playdates in the morning since it's still pretty hot by mid-day.

I met up with her and her friends at the park, they had picnic blankets and they apologized for not having snacks and shade umbrellas. Wow, serious playdate mamas! I told them I usually have picnic blankets and beach towels, but I don't today because I washed them and they are at home. I wasn't really planning to go to the park, but it was such a great idea that I came without snacks and my picnic blanket. We'll get by just fine.

We took care of introductions and the kids made fast friends and ran off to play. Turns out, the other moms are all moms from Gracie's school too. A couple of them have their kids at another campus, and one lady didn't have children but she comes to the playdates as a friend. Ahh, nice to meet you all.

We sat on the picnic blankets and I positioned myself to make sure I could see everything and not lose sight of Charlie. This park has lots of opportunity for running off. The boundaries are not well defined. Had to make sure the bench and the trash can were not blocking my view of the playground.  We visited about parenting, sending our children to school, balancing marriage and motherhood, normal conversations among women at the park. Or, was it? One lady was asking rather deep questions and the other ladies were saying, "with the Lord's help" and things like that.

Hey... wait a minute.... they all have leather zip up bible cases... matching.  Hmmm.

One lady whips open her book and reads something about Noah's wife and they all start discussing how supportive and strong she must have been. I'm telling ya, if my husband comes home on a normal day and says, "Honey, I'm a gonna build a big arc and save all the animals on the planet from impending doom." Without hesitation, I would assume he went crazy. I would turn around and go about my business completely ignoring his insane plan to save the world. Noah, dude, good thing you didn't marry me!

This is when I realized I was at a church playdate. Ohhhh. Ok. Well, no harm in that.

But then, they wanted to have a closing prayer. They all joined hands and prayed for each other out loud. I found myself included in this circle of women.  Lengthy too, really, my palms were getting sweaty and I could see Charlie climbing to the top of the highest play structure. He seems fine, but I wish they'd hurry up with the park praying cuz I felt weird holding hands in a circle at the park. I'm Catholic; we don't take it out of the church.

They all said it was nice to meet me and see you next week! Wait, did I just join the group? Oh boy. I accidentally attended a prayer group at the park and Praised the Lord in public, and now I am a member of the park church too?

It was nice to meet them and they were very supportive to each other.  They were not pushy at all! Hard to say that about most religious people that you find in the park. I could feel the empowering positive vibes from their friendships. I'm so glad they invited me and were happy with having me in their little group, but I'm not a pray in the park type so I'm not sure if I will go again. They were such nice people though.

Noah's wife must've been nuts.