Stuck in the Pen

     It seems that up until any of my children are moved into toddler beds from cribs, crying erupts from their little mouths every time they awake from a nap. This morning was no exception. So as I heard the infant babbling-sobbing version of "Mom is NEVER coming to get us, we'll die! We are trapped in our cribs! Abandoned! Left behind! Orphaned!" from my daughter, I approached the little dumplings' room to notice such a peculiar thing: Baby Boy handing his pacifier through the bars of their two cribs (they are side-by-side) to Baby Girl who was hysterical at her current situation. Her upset halted. She twirled the tiny object around in her pudgy hands and then raised it to her mouth and started to chew. She was still in the same situation, but for an instant she was calmed.
     
     Life is hard. Not many will disagree, but life seems especially hard when you are in the "sapling" stage of it. That being said I have perfected something I'm not terribly proud of: Meltdowns. I feel like I could start the "Basket Case" clinic and be quite successful! Though just recently I have had far too many feelings of shortcomings and disappointments. House not clean, weight not managed, laundry not done, in a job I'm too busy for, in a job I can't leave, house too small, no time for my family, no time for my church, children eating too much, children eating too little, did I brush their teeth? did I brush my teeth? did all my children feel loved today? did I tell them I love them? not sleeping...and the list goes on. I feel I fail severely every day. Some call it depression-I call it being spread to thin...SO I cry. Cry, cry, cry...Overwhelmed.  Even abandoned sometimes by those around me. I feel trapped in a crib like Mama is never coming to get me out! This feeling can happen anytime, anyplace. Undoubtedly it does happen though. Now, please don't get the impression that I feel like I live in a mental black hole. Not the case. I just live life, hard life, and from time-to-time it seems to add a little more height to those baby bed bars to make it hard to see when relief is coming.

         There is a show out there that I think everyone should watch (even if you don't watch TV). It's entitled "What Would You Do?" It's a show that sets up bogus but realistic situations to see what passerby's will do: help or walk away. A baby in a car seat locked in a car on a hot Summer's day. A 14 year-old girl being forced to marry against her will into polygamy. Someone's drink at a restaurant with a mysterious fizzing pill put in it when the owner takes a moment in the restroom. Would you help these people? I would like to think that myself and my readers would answer with a resounding "YES!". What about something more simple? Helping someone go on a walk. Bringing mail in to an elderly neighbor when you're already at the boxes to get yours. Cutting another's lawn. Opening a tailgate for someone struggling with a heavy load. Easy, right?

     It's easy to be selfish. It's easy to be a silent colluder. It's easy to keep walking because you don't want to take anymore time out of your busy schedule to give away to another's needs. But when did a plant grow by focusing inward? It absorbs what will help it grow and flourish around it and does just that. Magical things happen when we keep the "pay if forward" circle going. When we help It says I can't fix everything that's going on, but I will make this moment a little easier for you, because we are brothers and sisters and we share the same planet.

back in the "pen"...

     It would have been so easy for Baby Boy to say to himself  You should have taken the opportunity to become addicted to binkies when mom gave you the chance, they would be IN your hand...too bad Sister! Instead he thought, I'm not suffering as much as you, so let me help...Bless him! OH! From the mouth of babes! (Well, at least the spittle-filled fists of babes...)

    It may come in the form of an hour of free time to donate to help  get laundry done, lift a son out of a cart he got himself stuck in whilst the mom handles the other three chilluns, or offer to help follow someone out of a grocery store seeing that they have a lot to handle. It would been easy for all these binky-holders to say  " I have my own bags to carry", " I have my own laundry to do", " I don't have time for this", "If I don't make eye contact they won't know I've heard them", "I hope that kid doesn't fall, oh well, his mother is nearby" " man, she should have only had that many kids if she knew she could handle them". Be a binky passer. Just through the bars, a short reach from you to me and from me to you. Realize that not all the blankets are softer in the other crib. Be a doer, a helper. We all  need to be helpers. After all, we never know when Mama's coming to get us out...