So I'm in Raleigh tonight, preparing for a full day of client meetings tomorrow. In other words, a "Mommy Vacation!" (People, beggars cannot be choosers. If this gets me one day of sleeping until 7 a.m. and 24 hours without the Disney Channel, it's a vacation.)
Don't get me wrong. I'm missing my Knight and my Princesses like crazy. Princess E is spending the night with a friend from school, and Princess G is probably curled up asleep on Daddy's chest as I write this (she's the best cuddle-bunny ever). But a break from the usual routine every once in a while recharges my internal batteries faster than anything else.
I used to feel guilty about wanting (and taking) an occasional "break" like this - you don't hear about previous generations of women getting breaks from the backbreaking work and large families that were the norm. But, what they did have that we really don't anymore is a "village" - the extended family and close friends who all pitched in and helped out when one of their own needed extra help. When a woman had a baby, everyone pitched in around the clock for weeks to help. When the kids were old enough to play outside, everyone watched them, and everyone kept the kids out of (too much) trouble.
There was a real sense of community, because there had to be - but I think it was something more. The feeling of "we're all in this together" was tangible - women truly needed each other, and there was no shame in depending on each other. It was simply the right thing to do.
Now I'm not naive enough to think this camaraderie happened everywhere. But it happened a heck of a lot more often in previous generations than now. In my opinion, the camaraderie is a casualty of the "I am woman. I can do everything whenever I want by myself" way of thinking. In an effort to embrace our independence, have we chained ourselves to a lifetime of stress, frustration, unreachable goals and loneliness?
I can't have it all. I don't want it all. Because if I got it all, then what would I do? What's left after getting it all?
Here's what I do want: healthy children who love the Lord, respect themselves and others and have hearts full of compassion; a loving partnership with my husband that includes a lot of laughter; and to never forget that I am (thankfully) not in charge, but am here by God's mercy and blessed by His grace every day, even - no, especially - when things look their darkest.
So in the spirit of not having it all, I'm enjoying my Mommy Vacation, knowing my family is safe and okay without me for one night. And I'm still not missing the Disney Channel.
Monday, February 2, 2009
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3 comments:
Amen! It's amazing what one vacation can do for perspective!
You know what the morst ironic part of that is? When you talked about the village comraderie you quoted Highschool Musical (ahem...Disney Cahnnel)when you said "we're all in this together". I just thought that was funny. ;)
Yeah, okay, so I like High School Musical. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the HSM3 soundtrack has been the only thing the Princesses have allowed on my car stereo for the past six months. You should hear Princess G sing the songs! :-P
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