Gravitational Insecurity

None of these authors have it! (Though I'd wager each one could define it. They are that vicariously in tune with their kids on the spectrum.)

An anthology of perspectives on parenting, titled Gravity Pulls You In, is hot off the press. Having spent an hour on their website, I have reconnected with some bloggers I'd lost track of, gotten to know my neighbor a bit better, and met a couple new kindred spirits.

As I read the excerpts from editor, Kyra Anderson's Preface, I am flooded with camaraderie and ready to be deserted on a desert island with any of the contributors. She explains the title:

In my cartoon imaginings, I saw us sticking out sideways or hanging upside down like St. Exupery’s Little Prince...

“Gravity, Mom,” he answered for us both. And then he thought for a while. “I have an idea! Gravity doesn’t really pull you down, it pulls you in. So, if you were upside down, it wouldn’t pull you away from the earth, it would pull you in,

toward the earth, toward its center!”

Huh. Gravity pulls you in.

He’s right. It does pull you in, not just to the center of the earth but to the center of yourself, if you let it. Things that are weighty, things that demand a closer look, a new approach, a shift in perspective, those things pull you in. Even when you are spinning, even when you are moving much more quickly than you thought was possible, even when you find yourself in territory where instincts alone don’t feel like enough to complete the revolution.

The circumference of the earth at the equator is about 25,000 miles. Every twenty-four hours, the earth travels 25,000 miles around itself through space. That means we’re going more than 1,000 miles per hour. That’s fast.

And we’re not falling off.

It's centrifugal! Like the roller coaster on the cover art...and that I've mentioned previously here.

Funny how same reference is made in the opening of the movie, Adam.

My favorite children's book is about a little prince who came to earth from a distant asteroid.

He meets a pilot whose plane has crashed in the desert. The Little Prince teaches the pilot many things but, mainly about love.

My father always told me I was like the little prince but, after I met Adam I realized I was the pilot all along.

Here is to the continued journey of love and learning from our kids and other parents in the same boat!

the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3-8