I know all about lists.
I know all about lists of things that should have been done yesterday . . .
last week . . .
last year . . .
I know all about adding something to your list
just so you can cross it off
and feel like you’ve done
something.
And I know all about those things that stop you,
get in your way.
The things that need to be done everyday and keep you from getting ahead.
All that time in the kitchen that can leave you wishing
that you didn’t need to eat.
Those mountains of washing (clean or dirty)
that never, ever go away.
And I know what it’s like to trip over a toy, drag it back to where it belongs
for the seventh time that day.
Or what it’s like to feel frustrated by a spilled drink
(oh, do I!).
What it’s like to feel a little less than sympathetic
when someone gets an owie,
bursts into hysteric tears,
yet again.
Oh, and isn’t it easy to grow frustrated, feel hopeless
at the impossibly long list of jobs you want to get done–
those emails, those phone calls, those jumbled closets and drawers.
And it’s easy, far too easy,
to forget
the very reason
that you even do it all.
And forget the very people behind the reason
you’re making those phone calls, cooking those meals, cleaning that house.
You can forget
that for those of us home raising little souls,
our children are not a distraction from our work,
they are the purpose of it.
And so next time you feel disheartened
by all the things you didn’t do,
remember what will matter
a week, a year, or more from now.
Remember what they will remember
when they go.
And take the time to pull them close,
tell them how they’re loved
by God,
by you.
And pull them close to read
that favourite, dog-eared book.
And kneel down to tell them,
as if there’s nothing else,
what they’ve done right,
or how what they’ve done has hurt another
and how they can make it right.
For raising souls should not be rushed,
is not a side-line job.
And while we long to make a beautiful, harmonious haven
for those we love,
it is not the meals we cook, the dust we extinguish, the pictures we hang,
but the love we give, the patience we show,
the fruit of the Spirit within us,
the Spirit we help them to grow inside
that they will remember most,
that will really matter
in the end.
Avonlea x
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Happy Little Sigh
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