At a gathering of some women friends from my church tonight,
one friend told me that her husband, who normally doesn’t eat much fast food,
treated himself to a Big Mac for his birthday.
Another friend mistakenly thought she said he treated himself to a
nap. I said with a laugh, that would be a treat to me, to have
everyone out of the house so I could take a long nap.
Yet another friend at the gathering is in her 50’s and was
widowed not too long ago. When I made
the comment about the nap, she put her arms around my shoulders and whispered
to me, “Careful what you wish for. I can sleep as long as I like.” She went on to point out that the things we
wish for when we’re in the middle of the busyness of raising a family, like
some alone-time, seem ironic when you actually get them.
My prayer tonight is that I can stop wishing for peace and
quiet and appreciate the chaos a little more, do less photographing of my life
for Instagram and more LIVING in it. I
pray that the worries, stresses and the weight of my to-do’s will fade into
the background during the times my babies demand my attention. That when they
say, “Hold you, Mommy,” I will realize, each time, that there will be a very last time they ask, and it won't be too far down the road. I pray that I'll remember these days won’t last
forever and I have to soak them up, to hold those babies, even though I’m
more than half-crazy and the house is most always a disaster. Because one day, I’ll look back from the vantage
point of my neat, quiet, empty house and span of days ahead and wish for them
back.
