The day comes to a close and in my head I'm thinking, "Whew, I can finally relax". It's 10:30pm for god sake! What the hell! It's a Friday night and I'm in bed. How did it come to this? I'll tell you how it came to this...it's called PARENTHOOD.
I decided to take a day at home today and not visit my Dad. I had many things to do that needed to be done on a weekday and had to be done soon. Part of my responsibility was coming home and taking care of my kids during my week 'on'. Time to shower them with unconditional love, advice and food! (I've been told it's important to feed my kids). And for a day off, it was quite the whirlwind!
In general, my day went like this: get up because dog has to pee....take dog out, bring dog in, feed dog so she doesn't make those droopy puppy dog eyes at me, make lunches, wake younger kid (who is 11 and special needs - I'll likely chat about him a lot), wake older kid (I'll likely talk about him a lot too), go back and make breakfast, get younger kid dressed and moved to kitchen so he can have his liquid breakfast, go back and wake older child, take both children to school (usually it's only the younger one as the older one can walk but it's raining today and I'm off so I can treat the older one to a ride), come home, do business on computer, go to town to do business there, go to another town to do more business there, come back to first town to do business at a couple of other places including shopping, go home do one last piece of business on the computer, go and pick up younger kid from after school program, go out to Forest home (my ex's house) to pick up the older kid (he had to go there to get his shoes for a dance tonight - it's a 20 min drive each way), come home again, cook dinner, feed kids, help older kid get ready for school dance, drive kid to dance, feed younger kid more food, put younger kid to bed, entertain older kids' friend that is staying over (older boys have volleyball tournament tomorrow), pick up older kid from school dance......and here we are.
If you ask any other parent with involved children, or multiple children, I'm sure they will all have a similar if not more involved day and yes, I have left out all of the things we all do daily like eat, let the dog out and catch up on news and social media. So why am I going on about all of these mundane things? Within all that is normal and routine, there are wonderful moments that I have to stop and absorb and it is these fleeting moments that make each day special....we as humans need to harness the 'special' that happens EVERY DAY in our lives.
My first special moment was hearing Zac (my youngest) laugh as he woke up this morning. I love when he laughs, it makes me laugh. I went to the library and got an audiobook (for all of the long drives I am taking - I need a break from radio play music). As I started to listen to it, it featured a cello solo....it was beautiful and rich. I get an update on Dad from Mom who says that it was an uneventful day. This is great news in the world of Dad!! It means nothing was wrong today. I watched Andrew (my oldest) get dressed in his suit for his semi-formal dance....hair, shirt, tie and he let me help him put his jacket on. He looked so handsome! And finally, before I went to bed, I checked on Zac sleeping...so relaxed, so content, feeling safe, feeling cozy under his big duvet. I love watching him sleep. I puff up when I see him all vulnerable like that, as a protective parent should, I guess. All of these happenings helped enrich my day, helped me appreciate all that I have.
Which brings me full circle to my Dad again. As I am shifting a sleeping Zac under his duvet, I can't help feel bad for Dad who has expressed deep sadness in the fact that he will miss out on so many things if he dies. It's a wisp of a thought, fleeting out of my head as quickly as it arrived. But it was still there. I suppose what I am experiencing is similar in nature to Oprah's practice of writing down each day what you are grateful for. No doubt there are some days when finding the 'special' seems impossible, but I think we need to try and find the special, if not in something that we did, than in something that happened to someone else for there is special everywhere. One day after a beautiful drive on my way to see Dad, I posted this, "The world is full of incredible simple beauty...if we just take the time to really look." I am really looking, not searching, but looking.....seeing....noticing....
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