I totally believe in signs from the universe. I received a rainbow-related one (which I’ll share here someday) a few weeks ago, and I was hit with another one just last night.

I was having a tough evening: It started with me not being able to find something I had just bought (a skirt for Avery) and ended with me ranting and raving to the girls about how messy the house was and how impossible it was to keep track of anything amidst all our clutter, etc. etc. Zoe, tired and grumpy herself, wound up in tears – and by the time I got her and Avery in bed I was feeling guilty and lousy. (And still irritated with the state of our house, which, admittedly, wasn’t even that messy.)

I flopped on the couch and grabbed my phone to read, and the very first thing sitting in my RSS Reader was a poem from a mommy blogger I follow – something she was posting, she wrote, “to encourage those of you moms who are feeling weary right now.” Feeling weary indeed, I started reading:

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place,
but have not love,
I am a housekeeper not a homemaker.

If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements,
but have not love,
my children learn cleanliness not godliness.

If I scream at my children when they don’t follow instructions,
get frustrated and fault them for every mess in our house,
and have no grace and love
my children learn that Mom cares more about having things done exactly her way
than about listening to the needs and hearts of her children.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child’s laugh.
Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.
Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

…

All the projections I had for my house and my children
have faded away into insignificance,
And what remain are the memories of my kids.

Now there abides in my home scratches on most of the furniture,
dishes with missing place settings,
and bedroom walls full of stickers, posters, and markings,
But the greatest of all is the love
that permeates my relationships with my children.

So it’s a little dramatic and a lot mushy, but I’ll take it. It was a cosmic reminder, I think, of what really matters.

-M