She walks to the bottom of the tree, stands as straight as
she can, tilts her head back and stares up into the swinging branches. The top seems ages away and nearly
unreachable, but she knows that it can be achieved. After all she watched him do it only a few
moments ago. He had placed first his
left hand and then the right upon the trunk.
Stepping on those large roots protruding from the ground. Quickly he swung his leg around the trunk and
scooted up a little ways, careful to reposition his hands. He continued his assent even with the
continual motion of the tree.
Effortlessly he slid the heel of his foot over the branch and pulled
with his leg to bring his entire body up, teetering atop the weak unsteady tree
limb. He however was not satisfied yet,
he had to stand on that unsteadily limb and spring off with the expectation
that same limb would reach out and catch him.
It did, it always has. For that
limb is not really a tree limb at all, but the limb of his and her father. A man so devoted to his children he allows
them to climb him like he is nothing but a tree.
Before I had children I had one hope for those that I might
have someday. I hoped they would have
two very loving and involved parents. I
hoped they would know their grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins and be
close with them. It’s not as if my
parents aren’t wonderful parents, they are. They were just always busy doing something they
thought needed to be done for me and my sisters. Too busy to spend much time just being silly with
us.
My husband is great at just being silly with the children,
but me I have forgotten this lesson.
Today I became so upset with my twins for opening all the board games
and throwing the pieces all over the house and ruining the majority of the
games. Sitting here tonight after they
have all gone to sleep made me start thinking about how the board games were
not important. Rather enjoying doing
anything, even destroying board games, with them is what’s important.
Maybe tomorrow I will be the tree.
Tremendous post, Beth. Truly. You could submit it to one of the online "mom-based" publications and have at least a shot (mind you, they are overwhelmed with submissions and, always, getting a "yes" is tough stuff); however, I want to stress that this is worthy of such sites. Here's one such site and its submission page:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scarymommy.com/write-for-scary-mommy/
In short: my compliments to you for writing a post that feels a bit like fiction, until it becomes clear it's real life--and for using detail and reflection to create a very satisfying vignette of life as a parent.
I so agree with Jocelyn! First of all, Scary Mommy is a blog for "real moms" who make "real mistakes." Your post covers such raw emotions. You admit that you are not perfect as a mother, but your desire to be the best you can be is so real and truly touching. I can relate to sometimes getting caught up in the day to day and forget the small things. The little games and the "mommy, watch me"s. Every day I strive to be better than I was the day before, even if I am just taking 5 more minutes away from my phone than I had the day before.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, your post is meaty. It sticks with you. Not only that, but the descriptive deception of the beginning is unreal! You painted a picture in my mind of the children playing that I cannot shake. It will continue to encourage me to try harder to be that with my children EVERY DAY.
Your passion and talent truly shine through this post. I absolutely loved it.
That was a great post, very professional quality post with a great transition from story to real life. I'm with Jocelyn that is worthy of being submitted to a quality site.
ReplyDelete