brand new day

Sometimes the little things make the biggest difference... Being a single parent sucks sometimes.  With three kids, sometimes I miss the ease and convenience of having a second set of hands.  Sometimes it's empowering to face new situations and to know that I can and will make it through on my own.  Other times, it's just exhausting and overwhelming to know that I can and will make it through on my own. The other day, I had just gotten home from picking up my daughter from dance class during which I had taken the other two kids with me to the grocery store.  It was 5 o'clock and I had one hour to fix their lunches for the following day, get them started on their homework, take out the trash and get ready for work.  My 80 year old neighbor across the street whose house we had parked in front of was also taking our her trash as we pulled up and I thought to myself, "Please, please, please don't engage me in conversation... not today, not now."  I got out...

Lately I have been accused of living in a world that is all rainbows and sunshine.  Some call it naive or sheltered, others overly optimistic.  Honestly, there is a grain of truth in all of those statements.  I have lived a pretty sheltered life.  I've not been exposed to some of the nitty gritty of life.  And sometimes it is easier to see the world softened by the glow of the sun with a rosy hue to it; it makes the intolerable tolerable. But I have seen the darker side of life.  I've walked it and lived it, I'm not blind to it.  I know it's out there.  I was having a conversation with my mom the other day and she was saying that these past two years have been some of the saddest years of recent and she felt that she was ready to leave that sadness behind and wanted to embrace some joy in her life.  How that resonated with me; the readiness and openness to light and warmth and joy.   Sometimes you just have to choose the light. ...