Today, I had an unplanned trip to the Museum of Ice Cream. I've wanted to go for awhile but tickets are hard to come by. A friend was kind enough to bring me along when her plus one couldn't make it.
The traveling museum is known for many things but nothing so much as the Sprinkles Pool. It's a four foot pool full of over 95 million plastic sprinkles.
The sprinkles stick everywhere, and when you step out, they fall from your clothes like candy rain.
This little broom is in charge of sweeping up all the sprinkles that try to run away and, for some reason, caught my attention. It doesn't get them all. I had sprinkles falling from my clothes. I saw sprinkles on the streets outside.
But the little broom does the best it can.
Today, I went to a museum and jumped into a pool of sprinkles. I swang with bananas and ate handfuls of candy.
I was still pretty tired. The kind of tired that makes you hug a teddy bear extra tight. The kind of tired that makes you cry in the shower. The kind of tired that isn't really tiredness at all.
Life is a beautiful thing to me, but it can be overwhelming. An unimaginable amount of moments that seem equally important all at once. An unimaginable number of sprinkles in a pool, impossible to shake. Impossible to sweep.
But the little broom still tries, and maybe that's why it caught my attention in the midst of so much glitter and pomp.
If a broom can do it, I should be able to, too.
I thought to myself that I should make "keep sweeping" my mantra for the month. It's hopeful, in a way. It says that little efforts make a difference, even if the tasks will never really be managed. It says that we're made for the challenges we face.
But it's also a little sad. A little dull. A little limited. Is life just about sweeping up pieces of the things we swam through? The things that could have drowned us?
I took a seat on a bench shaped like an ice cream sandwich and popped a chocolate in my mouth. Chocolate is always a good idea.
The wrapper offered up a revision to my new mantra, an expansion to the idea that life is just about sweeping up the mess.
Chocolate is always a good idea.
