Better late than never, it's all about family, slow and steady wins the race.
As much as I expect the end to my tiredness to come from long days by the ocean or a trip to the mountains, God simply suggests I stop trying so hard to have my life look my way. The soul rest comes to the one who sets down their pen and stops trying to write the story … but instead envisions themselves as a reader.
- Sara Hagerty
Contentedness is learned by accepting life each day as God gives it to you, and adjusting your expectations to life’s limitations.
- Sally Clarkson, Seasons of a Mother’s Heart
Dear friends,
Though there is no official deadline for each issue of this newsletter, I have had the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland in my ear shouting, "We’re late!” for quite some time now.
What can I say, life has been full (I bet it has been for you too!). Wonderful, but also very tiring. People say that as the children grow up we’ll be less tired. Well, here’s hoping ;-)
Nothing like bone-deep fatigue to make you crack and snap, but also, when you have coffee and prayer and regain perspective, to make you appreciate the one going through thick and thin with you. On our wedding anniversary recently my husband went out early with my daughter to pick up takeaway coffees and fluffies, flowers and pre-breakfast cupcakes. I walked downstairs to a perfectly set table complete with a lit candle and my kids already seated and ready to eat! On previous wedding anniversaries I’d feel they had to be marked a certain way with fanfare. But this? This morning, this year, was perfect. I was so glad to be celebrating it at home with our little brood.
Without him I could not imagine how we’d have gotten through these last couple of weeks of winter blues, relentless rain and sickness. Thank you, Honey.
Our little baby (and I by default) was warded overnight in hospital for bronchiolitis. Though it was just for a day and a night, I was in despair for a good part of the stay. But I met a fellow mum in the parents’ kitchen. I could already tell when I walked in that she wasn’t on an overnight stay like me. All the months I have spent in hospital with our 3 babies has rubbed off on me; I sanitize my hands all the time, I recognise oximetries, I can look at the menu and choose the meal that is least likely to taste bad; I know to always choose jelly and ice cream for dessert … and I recognise the other parents who have also been there for too long. We talked for a second about milo and coffee and then, as also happens in hospital, we just cut to the chase. Real life. Her son had been there for 8 weeks for chronic heart issues. My own heart stopped just for a second and broke as it has many, many times with all the stories I have heard within hospital walls. She smiled, a little sadly, and deceptively lightly—”what can you do ay. At least he’s in the best place.” She was dressed in comfy lounge clothes and a warm dressing gown, with round smiling eyes and big hair, drinking instant coffee at 10:30pm.
“I hope your little daughter gets well soon,” she said, as we parted ways.
A mother’s love. There’s nothing in the world quite like it.
In other news … last month (it feels so long ago now!) I felt a little spark of joy adding a copy of my book to a little library for the first time! I smiled with satisfaction that it sat next to Julie Biuso’s Dancing on my Table which I had come across and loved in my food blog journey a long time ago.
I feel like my book has some travelling to do to reach more of the readers it’s meant to reach, but at the same time, I am content to let it travel at its own pace without hurrying it along.
Slow and steady perseverance is not something I have traditionally been good at, but in so many ways I feel God has really been teaching me this through circumstances, Bible verses recalled out of the blue, people … and just an inner feeling of regrowth. Of all God’s amazing work, surely the most amazing is what he can do within the human heart. He truly makes all things possible.
A good song for nights on which sleep eludes you:
Wishing you sunshine and blessings,
Mel