At the End of a Monday

We’ve all had this day.  The Monday of all Mondays: the shirt on backwards, spilled milk,  hour at the doctor’s office,  teething baby, raging headache kind of day.  It’s not even that there’s some major event that you can point to and say, “See, I had a  bad day.”  No, it’s the string of little things that can turn your average day into an endurance challenge. 

I returned home this evening feeling… defeated.  I’d managed to navigate my way through the day, perhaps, but a toll had been taken.  At one point, I sat with my poor teething baby red-faced and crying on my lap and came close to joining him in the tears.  With his angry cries still echoing in my head, I began to make a mental list of all that had to be done with the few remaining hours of my day.

There was a tugging on my pants leg accompanied by little voice calling, “Mama!”  With a tired sigh, I replied, “What, baby?” and looked down to find my son’s hands reaching for me.  As I picked him up, he gave me one of his sweet baby kisses and wrapped his arms around me, resting his head on my shoulder.  I just held him tight, enjoying the rare moment of stillness.  And just like that–the whole messy day melted away.  The only thing that mattered in the whole world was right there in my arms.

I set aside all mental lists and instead took him outside to bask in the sunshine.  Tears forgotten, we laughed and played in the grass and I concentrated simply on enjoying the little person that I love so much.  There wasn’t a better remedy for the day than my son, and sunshine.  When I walked back in the door, the weight of  all the things left undone didn’t feel so heavy.  I was rejuvenated, able to happily run through the nightly routine of cooking dinner, cleaning dishes, bathtime, bedtime. 

At the end of a Monday, I find myself thinking about  how easy it is to get bogged down in the things we feel must get done.  We get focused on the rough patches of parenting, on the tantrums or the fights or the late night or the tears.  It’s all too easy to miss all the sweet little moments that happen in a day, too easy to lose sight of what’s important.  Laundry can wait until tomorrow–love can’t.