The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are. It's not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found. ~William Stafford
Yesterday the sun flooded in and the temperature kissed the 70° mark for the first time in quite awhile. The warmth and clear wild blue yonder were far too welcoming. On the hour drive home from dropping off my love at the airport, the silent petition brightly shined in my face: This would not be the typical light-homeschooling-after-the-morning-drop-off-at-the-airport day. No, this would be an all-out battle for the mind of a child between unappreciated math facts and "When can I play outside?"Who could blame the child?
My own mind-battle, starved of a full two hours of sleep, argued between taking a nap and getting a long list of things done, but all day I craved distractions. Let's face it: anything to do with homeschooling and housework would be superbly and unmistakably sabotaged.
The Princess began with piano followed with math. Then we had lunch on the front porch. Afterward, while sitting on the love seat on the porch, quite comfortably cushioned with pillows, she read a chapter of a book to me, which put me to sleep a few times. Somehow that one word that just did not sound right would arouse me from the light slumber, but I would have to ask her where it was on the page as I vaguely remembered something two paragraphs back and then it all faded away as my eyes closed. The chapter read and my own body in betrayal, we decided that we should indulge ourselves in the hot tub after I did a few things while she played a bit and put her things away.
The hot tub was soothing, but oddly, I did not fall sleep as I have been known to do. Instead, I was enamored with my daughter. I remembered our first summer with the hot tub that she could not stand in the middle at all and how she would, being quite independent, walk all around the edge holding on. I remember the first time she could finally stand on her tiptoes in the middle and still hold head above the water. Here she is standing with the water line at her waist!
I thought to myself, she is such a pretty girl, with her fine facial features and a lithe frame. She has always been a delight to me, but more so that day because she was so pleasant to be with. We had done things that she enjoys so much. Such little things, really, that bring her so much pleasure. Why don't I do them more often?
When she wants to have tea, why does it seem such a bother? While I look at all the preparation, as Martha had done, I forget that she is my Mary, from whom I am to learn to enjoy the things that really matter.
So, we enjoyed the day, each other, the lunch on the porch, the hot tub, and nature. While in the hot tub, we both were called into fascination with a red shouldered hawk in the nearest tall tree, so easily seen since the trees are still bare. The Princess tried to imitate the call, which gave the hawk cause to turn and look at us as if to say, "Now, just who are you?"
Yes, for the most part we wandered through the day, enjoying many distractions, and found each other.
~ My Lord, thank you so much for my daughter. I remember praying to You so many times while she was in my womb that we would be the kind of parents she needed and she would be the kind of child we needed. She is. Thank you for this gift. ~
