I spent Mother's Day and the next two days cleaning up vomit and diarrhea from the carpet and bedclothes and everywhere else at every hour of the day and night. What was my reward? A personal day of vomit and diarrhea beginning at 1am.
I am limp as a dishrag, but finally better. When something like this happens, I always wonder if Mary went through it.
5.13.2010
Motherhood
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8 comments:
Poor you. Not much of a Mothers Day for you. I'm glad to hear everyone is on the mend.
One of my failings as a dad: I cannot "do" the vomit thing. I am in such awe of all you moms who nurse us weak men and our progeny with such grace. God Bless you.
And you know as well as I that Mary must have had her share...there's that whole "fully human" part after all. That's why we love Him so.
On the commute home yesterday, praying the luminous mysteries (DWP? Driving while praying = a benign cousin of DWI) – what a powerful combo: the luminous mysteries on Ascension Thursday! – wow –in awe of the beauty and perfection in our Father’s plan! – anyhow – pardon the digressions – I was pulled into meditating on our Blessed Mother in light of your weekend, Sonja. I was struck by the greatness, the power if you will, in her smallness.
…the infinite little things that mothers do for us…most often thanklessly…vomit and diarrhea and runny noses, picking up tissues scattered throughout the house and ear-cleaning (yuck!) and band-aids and clipping finger & toe nails and lunches made (slipping something special into the bag and never knowing whether it was noticed) and the endless chauffeuring. You worry with them and you worry for them. You shed tears with them and shed tears for them. You are their severest critic and their greatest fan. You mold them into adults, but they will always be your children.
Our Father chose Mary –so full of grace and full of such graces. She bore His fruit, rearing the fully human within the fully divine. Makes you wonder, while she wiped His nose and clipped His fingernails, mending the cloth of his fleeting mortality, if she knew without knowing His fate.
A mother’s tears
For her wounded child
Water that heals
From the blood soaked earth
Blooms a Rose
We love you, Mary.
God Bless Moms!
Wow, Dave, this is beautiful: "mending the cloth of his fleeting mortality..."
Yes, what I am learning, and trying to formulate into a coherent article, is that the little things don't simply draw us more deeply into God's world. They really, literally ARE the big things, the big purpose.
It's backwards, just like everything in God's economy is: the last shall be first, the weak are strong, the poor are rich, the leader is the servant.
In the most fundamental, earth-shifting way, the little things are really the big ones we are straining and clawing to achieve. The whole time, unless we are listening intently to God and following Him loyally, we are straining and clawing in the wrong direction. If we continue that way, we never fulfill the great Purpose He has had in mind for us from the foundation of the world.
Greatness is different to Him and to the heavens and saints than it is to us. What we have to ask ourselves is: which kind of greatness do we want? Do we trust Him to make us truly great for all eternity and not just spiritually influential for Him? It's not simply about how many we take to heaven with us.
What I am learning is this: I can trust Him with my deep yearning for greatness. He gave it to me, so He will bring it to pass. And it will be through the little things, because the little things are actually the Big Thing.
Sorry. That made no sense. I will try again. :-)
No, POTA, it makes perfect sense!
"I can trust Him with my deep yearning for greatness." I love that you have a warrior in you!
Dave...PtS...Ascension blessings! Sorry to hear about the "bug," POTA. Hope it leaves you soon. And Dave, great thoughts on the work of the mothers of this world. I can't dwell too long on whether Mary knew Jesus' fate in Her role as Mother...too much to "feel" in such a meditation, and I must admit I can't do it without tears welling up. She must have endured much...so, so, much...and was rewarded (so to speak) with Her own Ascension, of sorts. The Assumption...body and soul...no longer here in a corrupt, passing world. In the sem we used to spend lunchtime discussing the most edifying realities...like, since She was taken to Heaven, the laws of nature had to be altered and the "law of conservation of matter" from physics was bent. I love these "little things" that can be discussed with the kids--which is what you both are talking about here, really. The little things. The wondrous realities, especially wondrous when we look at them thru the eyes of a child. A recent one came up at dinner table a few weeks back...did I share this already? Our six year old lost a tooth, and before long the discussion was about Jesus when He was a child. And lo, from the minds of children, we came up with a most sublime question: what ever in the world happened to Jesus' baby teeth? I know, I know. Not a question theologians will bother with. But profound, if you think about it. Bone of our Lord...with no tooth fairy to change them into sheckles...left behind perhaps...somewhere on this earth. How consoling it is to think, and be, like a child. Even the mystery of the whereabouts of twenty teeth of the Word-Made-Flesh becomes a mystery to ponder.
Sonja – how are you feeling today?
Len - I'll freely admit that I was emotional thinking about Mary and her “smallness”. It's so profoundly moving and important and relevant. ...and your conversation with your kids about His baby teeth - wow...how can we NOT be completely in love with the Holy Family!
BTW, Len, how’s Jackie doing?
Lenny, the Tooth Fairy has Jesus' baby teeth, of course!
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