Do Less, Be More

The other day I was on the phone with Olivia and in the course of our conversation, her two year old dumped water on a wrapped present, she had children fighting over applesauce, and she tried to get them to clean up. She also told me about how the same two year old (lucky for him he's an adorable little man) had started unwrapping presents.

Motherhood.

Sheesh.

Olivia's in a different stage than I am.  I can romanticize it and tell myself I miss it but then I remember and I don't really miss it all that much.   Being able to safely stow the gifts under the tree is not bad.  Not bad at all.

But I'm in a new stage with new challenges...and they're plenty challenging for the likes of me.

When I talked to Marianne lately, she told me something surprising.  She told me, "I am struggling with something that you don't struggle with."  How could that be when from where I sit my big sister is near perfect?  (Turns out I just had been pulling the wool over her eyes.  I struggle too.)

We were talking about our children (don't be shocked) and their burgeoning independence and who they're becoming.  It's disconcerting when they're not interested in what we're interested in.  It's complicated when they don't excel where we excelled.  It's mystifying when they have completely new and different interests.  It's disappointing when we let our own sense of worth enter in.  (It's not about us.  But sometimes we forget that.) 

Motherhood.

Sheesh.

You know how I love a good quote so how about this one:

Do less, be more.

I like it.  I like to think about it in terms of my children.  Even though I sometimes forget, I really do care a whole lot more about who they are than what they do.

While I don't always like what they do or do not do (or what they struggle to do well), I almost always like who they are.

They are loving.  They are funny.  They are creative.  They are messy.  They are snuggly.  They are almost always ravenous.  They are mostly trustworthy.  They more or less want to do the right thing.

They are a little bit nuts.

 

These are all things I can appreciate.  These are things I can get behind.



I didn't take any of these pictures...they did and I found them on the camera.  My kids are goofy.