Bigger Picture Moment: Only Tomorrows

The saying goes: every child is born into a different family. 

And I believe it's true.

The first was surrounded by my own self-doubt.

The desire for perfection in the scheduling of hours.  Minutes.

Not out of any well-thought plan,

hers was a world more ordered by her mother's confusion.

Confusion needed to be remedied by order.

The watching of cues and over-analyzation of approaches.

But she was adored.  Never left alone willingly.

Fretted over.

And loved so much that we weren't sure

how another child would fit.

(Perfectly, that's how.

Like a pinkie being grasped for the first time

by tiny new fingers, that's how.)

The second was -- had to be -- less structured in her days. 

We were more calm than we'd been before.

(Although still over-wired by many standards, I'm sure.)

She reaped the benefit of our first mistakes,

and the drawbacks of our carelessness around dangerous objects.

She is still fretted over, though.

Certainly adored.

Hers is a world that's neither known loneliness

nor over-bearing attention.

But being the baby, she remains more attached.

She's less venturesome, because nobody has transplanted her yet.

Her independence is untested.

We pay attention to them now not out of worry

or the need to do things just right,

(although that does creep in at times)

but because we can't take our eyes off of them.

They are bright and shiny,

like bundles of jewels floating on

sun-touched waves.

(Or resting in overgrown grasses, as the case may be.)

If each new addition to a family is loved in new and different ways,

it must follow that each new day

is filled with chances

to love

in new and different ways.

Only tomorrows lay between us and

another new family member.

Only tomorrows.

Tomorrows that will shape the world our next child will enter.

Tomorrow will be beautiful.

Bright and shining and different,

no matter the shadows on overgrown grasses.

We're seeing the Bigger Picture through simple moments -- moments that force us to stop and take notice of the ways our worlds are important, meaningful, and beautiful. Please join us today at Alita's place! Grab the button, link up and then go forth and encourage the two people before you while they are walking this journey of intentional living.