My friend Carol has seven children, the oldest of whom will turn 17 this month. It must have been 16 years ago, then, that Carol had this great insight. She had been watching her daughter learn to walk and she said, "Persistence doesn't mean that you never fall down. It means that you get up one more time than you fall down."
Stella is beginning to walk, too, which means I am seeing it up close. Something is driving her to keep on trying, to pick herself up when she topples over and thunks her head again.
I have all these grand plans for myself. I will renounce sugar and eat nourishing green things! I will pray the whole Divine Office every day! I will keep the laundry folded at all times! I will not wander aimlessly through the blogosphere! Instead I will be a woman of Purpose whose children all have paired-up socks in their drawers!
Then I topple over and thunk my head again.
This is nothing new, right? I have written before about how I am either in the groove or waaaay out of the groove. (I'm out of the groove right now.) I have written before about the Christian life being a marathon, not a sprint. (I'm on the side of the road with a nasty cramp in my leg.)
But I don't want to stay on the side of the road or out of the groove. So I will stop writing this post, and turn on the dishwasher, and get to bed as soon as I can manage it in hopes of getting back on track.
About the socks -- my life has been at least 5% better since I got rid of all 100 pairs of my kids' socks at a garage sale (at that didn't count the unnumerable singletons I tossed) and bought 20 pair white and 10 pair navy (son #1 needs navy for his school uniform) in size that fit both of them. I don't match them, I don't try to put some in one son's drawer and some in the other's, they all get shoved in with the pajamas and underwear in son #1's dresser. I can pull out 2 that match in 2 seconds every morning and spend no effort on socks at laundry time.
Posted by: Amy F | November 13, 2009 at 12:07 AM
Love the toddler metaphor. Picking myself up once again.
Posted by: MelanieB | November 14, 2009 at 03:18 PM