This post from the past is why I’m taking a little break right now. Because now is a family time. It’s the only time in our lives when my little girl will be on the cusp of Kindergarten but still in the small, sweet place we specifically chose for her and when my little boy will still be mine, all mine, all day, every day. This time will pass and other times will come in and they will be sweet too. But this is a family time and I intend to live it to its fullest.
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A few months ago, I read a book called Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. A brilliant book, pick it up if you haven’t yet read it.
Without giving too much away, Sarah, the main character in the book, deals with an injury that renders the left side of her body mostly useless. She struggles with big tasks and small tasks. Tasks as small as buttoning her shirt. During one particular getting-dressed-related struggle, her physical therapist suggests that maybe this isn’t a button-up shirt time in her life.
I’ve thought about that line so often. I’ve used it to define my own life in so many ways.
This is not a sleeping in time in my life.
It’s not a Sunday-morning-with-the-paper time.
It is not a going to the movies time, or a long-afternoon-spent-watching-bad-TV time, or a finish-a-book-in-a-week time.
It’s not a cocktail party or happy hour time.
It’s not a spontaneous travel time. It’s soon to be not an urban living time.
It’s not a workaholic time.
It’s not a focus-on-only-me time.
But it is a family time.
It’s a Sunday-morning-with-cartoons-and-breakfast time.
It’s a playground time, and a mommy-daughter ballet class time, and a read-five-books-on-the-couch-before-bedtime time.
It’s finger-painting time and a lego time.
It’s a giving-someone-else-a-bath, brushing-someone-else’s-teeth, wiping-someone-else’s-tushy time.
It’s a watching-the-world-through-they-eyes-of-a-little-one time.
It’s a focus-on-them time.
It’s not the easiest time. But for everything it is, I do love this time.
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