Life to a child is so simple. Eat what you like. Play all the time. Sleep when you're tired. Ask for a hug when you need one. Oh to be that carefree again. Why can't we? Why must we always construct such complicated worlds around ourselves? Nearing thirty has caused me to be much more contemplative. For my next thirty years I want to simplify. Because right now nothing sounds more true than that the Hokey Pokey is really what it's all about....
Today was a red letter day. No plans except hanging out at the playground. No schedule except making sure we ate. Nothing that absolutely HAD to happen except a good long afternoon snooze. We played airplane and dress up and read MANY MANY stories and talked to the ants. Our day ended up with some Mickey Mouse, making our favorite Ranger cookies, a concert of pots and pans banging on the washer and dryer, and some spinning. I honestly had a hard time just being. I started into my frenzied dash around the house to pick up. Erma Bombeck (wise woman that she is) summed it up in a way that brings peace to my harried mind "Cleaning the house while the children are growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." Thank you Erma.
It dawned on me that God has blessed me with the perfect solution for simplifying my life. They're the ones building forts in my kitchen cabinets and scribbling on my linoleum. The ones who chase each other gleefully down the hall, giggling like mad, the ones who are fascinated to hear me sing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" in my best falsetto, the ones who can't think of anything better than taking a stuffed dinosaur for a stroller ride or pushing a rubber duck in a bright yellow schoolbus around and around the porch.
Sounds like a piece of cake. But it is one of the hardest things I have ever done. The dishes in the sink call to me. The pile of laundry clutches at me as I pass. The bathtub whines for a good scrub. My vacuum looks bored and I can almost see my mop shaking it's curly head furiously at me for neglecting it. But this is what I know as the "Tyranny of the Urgent", these things that feel like Must Do's are really Can Waits. And the two little wonders scampering around my house cannot wait.
So I give my best hours, my best self to my little ones. And the grumbling, weary, disheveled me is the best my extra chores will see. Let's hope it stays that way.
1 comment:
Amen, Sarah! May you have many more days with no plans.
And may our chores get the last of what we have to give, while our babies get the first and best.
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