Sand Castles, Footballs, and Purpose.

They point to a neighborhood on our way to the park.

“Mommy, that’s where Miss P. lives. But don’t try to get in there, because you have to have a card. Like, see that thing by the gate at the entrance? It’s a scanner, and you drive up and scan your card, and that’s the only way you can get in.”

“That’s called a gated community. Your dad and I used to live in a place like that.”

A couple of times, actually. The second address was so secure that I had a hard time getting home sometimes, but that was better than our first apartment where the ‘gate’ was so scant that it only kept out the people who didn’t want to come in anyway.

“Did we live there with you?”

“No, it’s before you were born.”

“Oh, so, we were inside you.”

“No, I wasn’t pregnant with you yet. You weren’t here at all yet.”

“So we were still in heaven? It’s weird that we were ever in heaven, because I don’t remember it at all.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you only started to exist when you were inside me. I don’t think you lived anywhere before that.”

“Okay, but God made us.”

“He sure did. And he knew you were coming. And he knew your name, and when you would arrive. And he has a special job for you to do while you’re here. Did you know that?”

“What kind of special job?”

“Well, that’s yours to figure out with God. But everybody is here with a very important job to do. God created you to do it, and it’s only yours you to do.”

“What’s yours?”

“Well, first of all, I’m your mom. It’s my job to be your mom every day for all of your life, in all the ways you need me to. But I’m also a friend, and I’m a sister and a daughter, and I’m an author. I get to tell stories and write books for people to read, and my story becomes part of theirs.”

“So that’s your ending?”

That’s kind of a harsh way to put it. “I hope it’s not my ending. I hope I’m not finished anytime soon.”

“But it’s why you were made?”

“Yes. I think all of those are some of the reasons I was made.”

“Well, I am made for sports,” says the tall one who is actually twice the weight of the smaller one. “I’m going to play football and teach kids to love that game. Tyler is made for …. other things.”

“Yeah, like science. And I’m going to invent medicines for people who try a cigarette and then they don’t want it anymore. I think it will cost ten dollars. Or maybe fifty. Or it might be free.”

He vacillates between inventing drugs to cure addictions or imagineering Disney experiences.

And then we arrive at the park and they run off to play, one to throw a ball high and long, and the other to experiment with combinations of sand and water to create the best consistency for a castle.