A Handful of Dandelions

I love it when a plan comes together. Whether it is packing for a trip and everything is neatly arranged for easy access to all the little emergencies or future life plans that have come to fruition. It makes no difference to me. As long as the plan is executed and finds completion, I love it.

Although, As Tani Parker put it, “Most days I feel like a little kid that can’t get their crayon to stay in the lines of the coloring maze.” It seems so simple! But most of the time, the crayon is bigger than the tiny maze printed on the page, and yet somehow, I am expected to stay inside of the lines. It resembles life with a toddler.

About the time I have things working like clockwork, I walk my child into the men’s restroom. In my humiliation, I quickly turn her around and exit only to be confronted by another woman headed to the correct door. She just laughed and said, “Oh, it’s alright, Honey, we have all done it.”

There are a thousand mistakes we make as mothers just trying to do right by our children. We are always caught in the middle of a task with someone needing our attention. Of course, this leads us to leave out important details of the new task we have now been assigned to. We take our child’s temperature and forget the Tylenol. We get their breakfast and forget the milk. We pack great snacks and forget the gummies.

It seems like there is always something forgetful in the art of motherhood. Multi-tasking can be our greatest asset and our worst enemy. I can get eleven things done at once and then forget the groceries at the store. Between you and me, I have even driven off with a bank deposit tube in my hand. It took me a few seconds to realize why everyone was honking at me. Eva didn’t notice a thing. She was happily eating her sucker.

It’s so easy to get lost in our shortcomings and forget all the wonderful things we do right by our families.

It was a day as described above, Eva and I were out walking, just enjoying our afternoon walk together. The dogs, of course, off running through the woods (It’s better sometimes that I not know where they go). All of a sudden, Eva offered me a fresh picked bouquet of beautiful yellow flowers. She had been picking them all along the way, and I just never noticed. At that moment, all of my mistakes were erased in a handful of dandelions.

Like all mothers, I too get so wrapped up in my child that there are moments I question the meaning. I get so busy cleaning birdseed out of her little pockets and collecting Cheese-It’s from inside her dollhouse that it is easy to think perhaps I am missing out on life’s great adventure or missing my chance to make my mark on the world. And yet, it was in a handful of dandelions that showed me, “Our greatest contribution to the world may not be something we do, but someone we raise.”

If you find yourself following a trail of Band-Aid wrappers to locate your child or perhaps multi-tasking has you a little overwhelmed, recall a handful of dandelions in your own life and remember, “Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it.” – Anne of Green Gables

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“…God will keep him busy with the joy of his heart.” Ecclesiastes 5:20

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