Have you stopped to wonder lately at the marvel that is your children?
WIth all the...
snack time. lunchtime. craft time. reading time. school time. bath time. bedtime.
...it's easy to just see them as time. time suckers. time gobblins. time times four or five or how ever many you have.
With all the...
chores. discipline. responsibility. instruction. routine. time out. correction.
...it's easy to view them as work. demanding. ever present. never finished work.
With all the...
activities. birthday parties. music lessons. basketball practice. homeschool co-op.
...it's easy to feel like my life is centered around theirs. me spinning like a mad dervish around dervishly spinning mad children.
Until. Today I stopped spinning. Put everything down, nothing away. It could wait. We could not.
We rode our bikes to the new yellow park. The one yet undiscovered park hidden away in the new subdivision across the way. They played while I read with little one and little two, work tucked between play.
When finished, I lay back and observed my little wonders: one, two, three, and four. I marveled at these people, these personalities that were endowed to me, me!
Their brilliance, their resilience shone as they scurried up spinning slides, making their way across monkey bars and flip-di-dos, a demonstration in courage and fortitude. I wondered, had I had a part in teaching them this?
Smiles wide, arms flailing as they took in the simple beauty and warm air surrounding, a demonstration in pure bliss, innocent joy in the small blessings. I marveled, had I ever learned this from them?
While the brisk breeze cooled my head boiling in thoughts and tasks and plans and proposals, I took the time to peek beyond the work and the effort and the busyness. What I saw in their future and mine, our future together, was more of the same. More time spent wiping sandy feet. More discipline with their chores. More time in the carpool lane.
But, oh, so infinitely more! I saw bliss and courage and joy and pluck blossoming from our togetherness. I saw sighs exchanged for smiles, exhaustion exchanged for contended rest.
I saw my children for who they were and my granted privileged presence beside. They are marvels to be wondered at.
Tonight as they set and clear the table, as they struggle through new words in reading, as they peck across the ipad in pursuit of some new nemesis, I'll remind myself of their beauty, the miracle of their life, and the gift that each one is to me in mine.
