Divine Dandelions

Starting a blog has been in my heart for some time now. My friend Andrea has been the one to keep encouraging and nudging me to get it going! I am calling it Divine Dandelions, because my everyday life as a mother is as ordinary and regular as the globally common dandelion.

Motherhood is the normal calling of most women on earth, chosen or not. Anyone can do it, no qualifications required, no trophies for best performance, no company bonuses for a job well done. Indeed, it is a messy, unglamorous life. Chewed cookie smudges noticeably decorate our black t-shirts. Dining tables are turned into art centers, strewn with drawings of smiling suns, rainbows and cut-out clouds, amid piles of unopened mail and unsorted school work, while the silver candle holders get jostled from their rightful place. All three laundry baskets, the one in the bathroom, the one in the bedroom, and the one in the laundry room are overflowing, even though laundry folding, washing, and putting away has been a continuous project all week. Because it's the weekend, the kids have worn the same outfits since Friday, including one daughter in a black leotard and tights that she would wear for a week if I let her. Besides, it helps cut down on the laundry.

So many of us around the globe endure the same never-ending mundane chores and the constant chorus of "mommy, mommy". We are all eternally fighting to stay in control but always feeling one step behind. We easily lose sight of the forever treasure that we hold and mold. The miracle of the love between a man and woman creating new life. The divine shining into our lives with the arrival of a brand new person, whom we can't fathom that just a couple months or years ago, she did not yet exist. We are sure that she has always been and always will be the owner of a chunk of our souls.

More than anyone, I need to remind myself while drowning in my own complaining and feeling that I just can't do all of this, that this is the life I wanted, I asked for this blessing of being a mother, even a stay-at-home mother. At one time, I wasn't sure I could even have children. Now, four daughters later, I am surrounded by giggling, snuggling, constantly chattering, whining, crying, snotting, diaper-changing,  quarreling, finger-sucking, sweet-smiling, crumb-making, drawing, painting, learning, growing, heart-stealing, dazzling little people who have for some incredible reason been entrusted to my care to help them find their way and their purpose on this planet. They are my divine dandelions, completely normal little girls with the magic glow of forever in their faces. And this is my divine dandelion of a life, entirely regular, yet delightfully sprinkled with golden fairy dust from heaven-- dispersed with divine joy, flavored with foreverness, enfolded under the cozy wing of God's Spirit. Our own little haven of heaven's happiness and peace, even though it gets messy and noisy in here!