Words that sound the same in Sophia-speak:
Benny and bunny
Is she talking about her favorite stuffed rabbit or her baby brother? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
Dolly and jelly
As in peanut butter and jelly. I always think she’s looking for her dolly when she’s requesting her favorite snack.
Mary and Mommy
My poor sister thought she was calling for me when she really just wanted the little plastic statue of Mary that stands on the kitchen window sill.
I have had that thought occur to me recently, but need to cultivate more of that contentment you describe. Not surprisingly, I also need to cultivate my prayer life! But as for appreciating the everyday, trying to view my 31-year-old life through the eyes of my 11-year-old self might help. When I was a kid and teenager I frequently wrote out imagined dates of marriage (usually to specific crushes!) and the birthdates and full names of imagined kids. December 2009 is a month that may very well have been featured, probably daydreaming of a “Christmas baby,” maybe the fourth or fifth child according to my hoped-for schedule! No Christmas baby yet, but my marriage of 8 1/2 years and our three kids do closely resemble one of those lists.
Yesterday I went to Mass by myself, normally a real treat. All I could think about was, “The altar’s so pretty with the priests in their pink vestments! I wish my kids could see this!”
And then I glanced across the aisle and saw a young college student sitting by herself. I remembered how LONELY those days could get for me…and I thought, how very very blessed I am.
Happy last 2 weeks of Advent, Melanie, and thank you for this lovely post that is an affirmation of my own gratitude. Hug that chubby Ben for me!
God is good, se good very, very good.
Theresa, I need to cultivate it more as well. Most of the time I’m so caught up in daily anxiety, I miss the absence of that former existential angst, if you know what I mean. It was something that would haunt me at night when I was trying to fall asleep, a feeling that hit every month riding on a hormonal wave, a deep-down discontent that colored every waking moment. It’s only when contemplating how that feeling doesn’t ever come around any more that I really notice the absence. But I don’t spend as much time as I should noticing the fullness of what has replaced it.