For What It's Worth

The day starts at 6am or earlier.

The snooze button is not a luxury you can afford. The first few minutes are brutal. 

That first whiff of coffee will make it better. At least the most critical goal of the day has already been attained - oversleeping was avoided.

The consequences would have been unthinkable for the kids must be delivered to school before dawn. The sun is barely nudging its way over the horizon as the kids say their goodbyes. 

The sun feels like the enemy. 

Darkness is the refuge. Darkness is the blanket that smothers the insanity of the days. 

But the sun demands work and it demands that commitments be honoured.

Balancing parenting, career, and household demands requires that you flirt with exhaustion every single day. Wavering on the edge of exhaustion is an accurate description of your constant state of being. 

A perfectly executed day brings you to the brink of ultimate exhaustion, and that is proof that today has been a productive day.

But there are moments of complete paralysis when you are unable to move a muscle. 

You’re unable to get up off the couch, off the mattress, into the shower, out of the shower. Some nights you stand in the shower resting your head on the tile allowing the water to precipitate over you. This is the only relaxation that you enjoy on most days.

The day winds down and you attempt to take stock of the things you had accomplished today. 

But even with all that you have accomplished today, your mind is racing with guilt over the tasks that you acquiesced to postpone until tomorrow. Your thoughts dart within your head like lasers as you make a mental to-do list for tomorrow.

Finally your body begins to succumb to the inevitable.

As you seek to cocoon into slumber, you hear the light pattering of the feet together with melodious laughter sauntering into the room.

Then you see this.

Everything is worth it.