Category: children

Do you see it?

I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in what we are dealing with we forget to stop and think about the joy amongst us.

Lately, I have been super busy with my children, and what’s going on in their worlds. It’s a busy time with the school year ending, graduation, summer, birthdays. It has all been a whirlwind, and it has been a distraction from many other parts of my life.

But, it has also made me aware of how my children ARE my life.

I will never struggle one single day wondering what I have to be grateful for, because I have them.

Even while wandering down a difficult path or rushing through a busy life, we can all take a minute to think about that.

My attention immediately goes to those thoughts in the back of my mind. The ones I keep hidden away, the ones I try not to remind myself of too often, but the ones that are constantly there. Sometimes haunting me, but a reminder to have hope for some things and count my blessings for others.

I see one mother fighting alongside her son. Battling for his life with every ounce of strength and faith she has. Searching for a treatment or cure, praying for a miracle. Never giving up, not knowing what “No” is.

I think to myself she is a warrior, fighting what must be the most unimaginable crusade of her life. Against a fury that will not let loose or give up.

I see another mother begging God to let her son come back to her. To wake up and be that little boy she so desperately needs to hear call out her name.

I know she must think she is living in hell. Her son’s life spared, her being able to hold him, but wondering if he really knows who she is.

I see it.

There’s the mother who lost her daughter on her wedding day. Lost her son to addiction. Lost her baby at birth.

I see it.

There’s the mother who sat beside her son’s hospital bed after a terrible accident. The one who prayed beside him for his pain to subside. The one who knows he was lucky.

I feel that.

And, I see it.

Today, I said I will never regret the time I have spent on my children. The time spent worrying for them, praying for them, hurting for them.

The time spent playing rather than cleaning the kitchen, helping them with homework rather than going to bed early, eating their cotton candy ice cream because they liked my mint chip.

I see it.

And, I have no regrets about it.

None.

I have realized it’s ridiculous to sweat the small stuff.

Or, to worry about a perfect house. Perfect kids. Perfect grades. Perfect social status. Perfect life.

Even if we pretend it to be that way, we know in our mind it’s not true. And, at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter anyway.

The only thing that really matters is if WE are happy, and if there’s love and kindness in the hearts we raised.

That’s JOY. And, that is what matters most.

And yes, I see it!