“It won’t always be this way.”
That has been something I’ve told myself during so many mothering days,
as I picked up the same old discarded toys, or washed the same dishes, or a child appeared
In the middle of the night, headed for my bed, carrying 10 stuffed animals down the hall;
As my arms grew sore from applying sunscreen in the summer, or I broke up fights about one sister supposedly getting way more.
“It won’t always be this way”
reminded me to slow down and take in even the things that felt like a struggle,
felt, some days, extra hard.
It reminded me that one day I’d miss the little nothing-moments like watermelon juice on faces and their hair in tangles, and the sight of lone Barbie shoes on the floor.
From early on I knew I’d come to this place where I am standing right now, walking these often too-quiet halls, and I’d need to be well-versed enough in those six little words to remember that even in this,
the “After They’re Little” time,
there will still be so much more.
It won’t always be this way
with the teenager’s sighs, and their backs to me so often turned.
It won’t always be me wondering “What’s next from here?”
One day I will look back and I’ll know the answer to what comes.
I’ll see this version of me, standing here today, and I will smile at her,
Then with a knowing look I’ll hold out my hand, and I will assuringly say to the me who is questioning everything,
“It won’t always be this way,” to her.
For the me that I was taught Love in the Simple.
She loved the whole world, and started right in her own home
with countless loving acts, like picking up those toys, and combing those tangles,
that at the time felt completely invisible.
But tiny eyes took them into their own hearts
and then carried them out into the world,
where they, too, loved in the simple ways,
and in that,
In that ripple,
It wasn’t always like this
Because one small ripple can change the whole world.
Mom Outnumbered
Hi! My name is Kerri Green; Wife to Justin, and mother to four highly entertaining daughters -Alena, Chloe, Tessa, and Paige. I am an artist, a writer, a daycare provider, a lover of people, a believer that there is humor and beauty in all things, and the author of Mom Outnumbered; a blog about real family life, and my observations of it. My goal is to make people laugh, to be there for them when they cry, and most importantly, to let them know that they are not at all alone in this up and down world. I live with my family in Sebastopol California, and I am opening the window into our life. So welcome! Come in. Sit down. Just please don’t mind the mysterious wet spots.
