Miracles and Comfort

Today the fabulous Princeton Friends School was holding a hands-on multi-faceted Math Day. We had to go. Grammy, you would have been as pleased as punch! There were 30 different workshops to choose from (!). Participants picked their top six and were placed into three. Of all the choices, the one that Mr. D was most interested in was this one:

#11) The Monty Hall Problem: We'll learn about a famous and tricky problem that even some mathematicians got wrong! We’ll learn about it through acting it out, and we’ll see how probabilities let you reason about partial knowledge.

Famous and so tricky it stumped mathematicians? And we could get it right?! So cool. After dinner tonight, our seven year old explained to his other mom how to think through the famous Monty Hall problem.

Image by Fiona B. via Flickr

Whoa. It was nothing short of miraculous. These moments of wonder, which have been pretty much non-stop for us as parents, sometimes remind me of other sharply contrasting moments.

Like the moments when you know there's a baby growing, but you don't know yet if it will all be okay. When we were expecting, we were so nervous. Such a huge journey to be embarking on!

T remembers feeling some of her anxiety lift the first time we saw Mr. D's still-forming spine on the ultrasound. Something about the perfection of that tiny little stack of bones was comforting to her.

Image by Filipe Ferreira via Flickr

For me, it was the ghostly but clearly discernible images of his little hands and mouth that made it all seem a little more real and possible.

Did some piece of your life seem miraculous today? Did you take comfort from something unusual?

(Thanks to Jem
for her continuing inspiration --
today it was this.
And don't worry, I'm going to
take some photos of my own again someday;
in the meantime, go enjoy some of Joel's, maybe?)