{"id":19394,"date":"2014-04-10T08:20:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T16:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/?p=19394"},"modified":"2014-04-09T19:31:44","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T03:31:44","slug":"love-leaves-the-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/?p=19394","title":{"rendered":"“Love leaves the dust”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00c2\u00a0guilty and lousy.\u00c2\u00a0(And still\u00c2\u00a0irritated with the state of our house, which, admittedly, wasn’t even that messy.)<\/p>\n

I flopped on the couch and grabbed my phone to read, and the very first thing\u00c2\u00a0sitting in my\u00c2\u00a0RSS Reader was a poem from a mommy blogger I follow – something she was posting, she wrote,\u00c2\u00a0“to\u00c2\u00a0encourage those of you moms who are feeling weary right now.” Feeling weary indeed, I started reading:<\/p>\n

\n

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place,
\nbut have not love,
\nI am a housekeeper not a homemaker.<\/p>\n

If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements,
\nbut have not love,
\nmy children learn cleanliness not godliness.<\/p>\n

If I scream at my children when they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t follow instructions,
\nget frustrated and fault them for every mess in our house,
\nand have no grace and love
\nmy children learn that Mom cares more about having things done exactly her way
\nthan about listening to the needs and hearts of her children.<\/p>\n

Love leaves the dust in search of a child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s laugh.
\nLove smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
\nLove wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.
\nLove picks up the child before it picks up the toys.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

All the projections I had for my house and my children
\nhave faded away into insignificance,
\nAnd what remain are the memories of my kids.<\/p>\n

Now there abides in my home scratches on most of the furniture,
\ndishes with missing place settings,
\nand bedroom walls full of stickers, posters, and markings,
\nBut the greatest of all is the love
\nthat permeates my relationships with my children.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So it’s a little dramatic and a lot mushy<\/em>, but I’ll take it. It was a cosmic reminder, I think, of what really matters.<\/p>\n

-M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-84-two-kids-april-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19394"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19400,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19394\/revisions\/19400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}