Saturday, March 13, 2010

Beauty and Fulfillment Amidst Warm-ups and Accidents

A few of our recent days went a little something like this:

Day 1
3:30 Accident
3:40 Accident
3:50 Accident
4:50 Accident
6:00 In the Potty
7:00 Accident

Day 2
11:50 In the Potty
1:00 Accident
3:00 Accident
4:15 In the Potty
5:40 In the Potty
7:00 Accident**

And all along this fun clean-up fest of joy our other little one would take a short nap here and another short nap there and in between, grumpiness--cranky, ornery, grumpiness. Lets just say on a normal day I would have curled up, jumped right on in, and joined her, but not this day. On this day I was taught.

After dinner with dishes still undone and a once again grumpy baby I turned the radio and started to dance with her. She began to smile and then her eyes began to roll. She was falling asleep for the fifteenth time that day but I just kept swaying and moving to the music. We ended up in the living room just the two of us. As I rocked and swayed I caught a glimpse of myself in a fuzzy reflection in our tv. Messy pony tail. Warm-ups. T-shirt. And a Baby in my arms. I felt beautiful. I felt fulfilled. Really? Looking like this? On a day of cleaning up puddle after puddle? Yes, even on this day I felt those things very strongly. I was being taught and bouyed up.

In the background I caught a glimpse of the Proclamation hanging on our wall and on top of our tv I noticed the picture of the temple. I felt blessed.

Some might say that "I am just a Mom" and that my life is "mundane" and "ordinary" and sometimes I can feel that way but on this day I found my role "spectucular" and important:

“Occasionally some individuals let the seeming ordinariness of life dampen their spirits. Though actually coping and growing, others lack the quiet, inner-soul satisfaction that can steady them, and are experiencing instead, a lingering sense that there is something more important they should be doing . . .as if what is quietly achieved in righteous individual living or in parenthood are not sufficiently spectacular"(Elder Neal A. Maxwell).

Motherhood should be sufficiently spectacular even in warm-ups, cleaning up puddles.

**Days since are getting much better. More "In the Potty" rather than "Accidents." Yea, Progress!

2 comments:

katers said...

Good luck with the potty! Don't you just love dancing with babies?

Stephanie said...

"spectacular."