Yesterday...Today & Tomorrow...

Today i had a moment...i am prone to them...

i welcome them...i cherish them...

We [all 5 of us] were standing in our front yard...golden sunshine all around...Bianca's hair tossed and turned by the wind...Bradley kicking a ball around... while Brandon rescued Google our 'rare' ginger female cat from climbing too high...our front yard with it's really high side wall...

a wall i liked for the privacy it promised the first time we ever laid eyes on this house...back when it was still... just a house... not yet a home...

the home part came later...soon after we had feathered our nest...and settled in it...

but mostly this house became home...

when we carried over the threshold... first a pink bundle and then two blue ones...each in their own season...

 and with each child born in that same hospital...driven home along those same streets...

to the place where they will always have a 'soft landing place' and more love than they will ever need...

that feeling grew... for it was really with them, that...

this house became a home... 

...where the heart is...

Today

the older children came walking across the garden towards me...
to talk...standing close...as is their way with me...

and suddenly i remembered a time from 'yesterday'...

The image of a little girl... a whole 2 years old...wearing a soft pink tracksuit and tackies...

her long then blond hair with it's softly curling edges also blowing in the wind as she runs the length of our front yard...hops on that swing with her doll and rides her little black motorbike up and down...the plastic wheels making a loud grinding noise on the paving...

I remember how the cool air felt...it was winter...

getting dark...time to go in...i quickly say a rhyme out loud for her...

teaching her creation and God things...

"I see the moon ... and the moon sees me...

God bless the moon ... and God bless me..."

I pick her up...and holding her close i point... showing her the moon...high up in the fast darkening sky...

my prayer is that God will truly bless her...abundantly...

And then... there is in my minds eye... an 'always busy' boy child with green eyes so like mine... he must be all of 3 years old and he and i are sharing...

 this front yard and that rhyme... the moon and this same moment under the evening sky...

only... it's years later... my prayer is just the same...

Time has marched on... and on... since then...as only time does...

My Bradley and i have shared this self same moment...

here in our front yard...

where so much playing...running...kicking and growing together has happened...

our front yard...where the heady fragrance of...

Yesterday...Today & Tomorrow

greets the dawn and is fresh each morning...

swirls around on the warm afternoon breeze...

and hangs heavy in the night air...

for we are not done here yet...

there is still playing... running... kicking and growing together happening...

here in our front yard... 

tomorrow is another day ...

Ain't Love Grand...

Yesterday morning i asked a warm and sleepy eyed Bradley...

 if he was ready to wear his Summer uniform to school...

he agreed readily...being a 'hot' child... and i cautioned

him to take care not to fall...

 that he would get hurt...

 now that his 'running legs' were bare...

Time to fetch him revealed scratched and raw knees...

some silly child had tripped him and laughed...

[best i not find you, you little rotter]

Bradley immediately began to express fear for bath time...

 and the burn that would surly come... 

And burn it did....!

It's not fun when your child is in pain...

even this kind of fleeting childhood pain...

pain is pain hey...

distress is distress...

I really tried everything i could think of to spare him...

 as much as i humanly could spare him...

it burned anyway...

he cried...

a lot...

"Mom...meee ...

Mom...meee it's sore...

owie ... owie ...

Mommy it's burning..."

and the tears flowed freely...

and the little voice shook...

and the little body hunched over... protectively...

and my heart bled for him...

and i was stressed...

enough for this thought to pop into my mind...

"Mothers really do get the worst of it..."

feeling a little resentful...

i wondered where the father was...?

 why he was not coming in to check...?

to help...

i would have come running...

but then I AM THE MOTHER

i have no choice...

it's instinctive 

I am always to be found in the trenches of motherhood...

where all the really hard work happens...

where all the sweat and tears happen...

where the love and service happens...

where almost constant and persistent...

 prayer for them happens...

where the soul shaping happens...

where the lessons happen...

the bitter ones and the sweet ones...

where the bonds are formed and strengthened...

tried and tested...

bonds that WILL stand the test of time...

My child is hurt and in his pain he cries out my name

and i am there...

 to help and comfort and soothe 

Yes we mothers have the worst of it...

and through the worst...

 we have the very best of it too...

Ain't Love Grand