Prayerful Wishes and Bubble Run Dreams

The Bubble Run comes to town! Lilia Grundy shares how this 5K inspired prayer, trust, and surrender.

Bubble Dreams

As we approached the bubblegum-pink bubbles, my heart began to flutter—I’m a bit of a claustrophobic. My daughter clutched my hand as the bubbles towered eight feet over her head. This was it—we had made it to race day and we were running through the giant bubble wall.

Just a couple months earlier, the girls had come home from school announcing that the Bubble Run, a 5k, was coming to town. Wow, I thought—this would be a fun way to spend a weekend morning as a family. I envisioned joyful smiles in my head with fantastic bubbles floating all over the course. And our family running together as one unit, one team.

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I had this idea in my head of how things were supposed to line up—and yet, here we were on race day:

I didn’t wake up early enough to enjoy my morning coffee
My daughter couldn’t locate her running shoes as we were hastily trying to get out the door
Husband was not pleased that the driver ahead of us parked too slowly in the parking lot
The fact that I needed to make a pit stop to the porta-potty upon arriving to the destination didn’t make things any smoother
There were constant questions of “Are we done yet? ... How much longer? ... Will there be more hills?” all along the course

It was an up and down wave of emotions as we ran through an array of colored bubble walls.

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Giving in to the Foam

I realized halfway through the race, that my bubble dreams of how this run was going to turn out—was in fact not going to turn out. It reminded me that my life is like this—I have a plan, pray, and hope. Ultimately, I’m not in charge. Many in our CatholicMom.com community are familiar with the Surrender Novena—but I only learned about the prayer a year ago and have since adopted the novena into what a friend calls a “prayer loop.” Meaning, when I conclude praying the novena after nine days, I pray it again on repeat. It’s a great reminder that God is taking care of me, and I don’t have to worry, because I worry, a lot.

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For example, during the bubble run, I was anxious about how my daughters were doing, concerned that I needed to make another pit stop during the run, and agitated that my husband was up ahead of me with one of the twins when I specifically requested that we all stick together. Would the towers of bubbles swallow me and my girls up?

So many trivial worries, really. I stopped myself finally and said, OK. I surrender. The bubble foam wasn’t going to take me down. I needed to relish the foamy fun. I needed to savor my surroundings. I needed to revel in the fact that my family was together sharing this moment (key in “The Forever Now” by Mandy Moore).

Click to tweet:
My life is like this—I have a plan, pray, and hope. Ultimately, I’m not in charge. #catholicmom

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Move over, champagne and caviar

There was a phrase made popular by celebrity interviewer, Robin Leach, host of the TV show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Leach would sign-off each episode by saying, “I send you champagne wishes and caviar dreams.” Maybe it was the foamy bubbles along the run that reminded me of the champagne catchphrase, but the tagline inspired a new saying that came to me as I ran and now send to you: “prayerful wishes and bubble run dreams.”

You see, I had said my prayers in the morning, during the race, and then left it all to divine providence. No, it wasn’t the perfect run I had envisioned, but as we neared the finish line, there my husband was with our other daughter slightly up ahead, waiting for us! We could now see the “FINISH” blue arch in sight and that’s when we all caught up, held hands, and crossed the finish line together. These are what bubble dreams are made of.

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