The Gift of Perspective

I certainly hope you all had a great Memorial day weekend! 

We had a washout of a day Monday and we were not able to 

make it to our family hike or zip line adventure, 

but we hope to reschedule that sometime soon! 

Despite our disappointment, we managed to make the best 

of the dreary day indoors with play dates, puzzles, a movie theater outing, 

and some much needed closet cleaning and studio spruce up still in the works. 

And our flowers and plants said "thank you" to the rain.
It's all about perspective, right? 

Today, I want to share a wonderful article called 

The Gift of Perspective 

written by my sweet friend Lillian. 

She's an amazing mother, and she wrote this recently 

for one of her church publications. 

After she read my story about meeting Terry, 

she sent me this and I just had to share it. 

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of perspective and let us take off our blinders 

which often prevent us from experiencing situations like these.

Have a beautiful day!

xoxo,

C

The Gift of Perspective

by Lillian R.

I was given a much needed and wonderful gift this morning.  It didn’t come in a box with a ribbon, it wasn’t shiny and expensive. The giver of this gift had no intentions and was not even aware of his generosity.  

It had been an unusually hectic morning.  One child didn’t have the “right” uniform skirt and I was to blame.  Another couldn’t help but “press a few of her sibling’s buttons” which resulted in a shove across the room, a goose egg, and tears.  One child’s cat hadn’t been fed in I don’t know how long, the groceries were still on the counter after the previous days run to the store, the dog was desperate for a walk, there was hair drama, and an “I’m not going to school” stand-off.  As the clock ticked on I got more and more anxious about all I had to do and everything got lumped together in my head: get to work on time, load the dishwasher, organize a chaotic household, clean, PTA responsibilities, the horse (Can’t forget the horse!), think of and implement consequences for the inappropriate behavior de jour, dinner or lack thereof, etc., etc., etc.

I finally got in my car to come to St. Martin’s and was stopped at a stoplight near Cotswold School.  I saw a young man and two children walking toward the school and thought “I should at least be thankful that I didn’t have to wrangle with the city bus”.  There was a knock on the window.  I didn’t know this young man but immediately recognized the child behind him: Leo, a former classmate of my sons.  “Are you Henry’s mom?” the young man asked.  “Yes”, I said.  “Would you mind taking Leo to school at A.G. (Middle)?”  I hesitated.  I had so much to do and had to get to work.  “Sure” I responded with little enthusiasm.  Leo hopped into the car.  His brother waved and thanked me and exchanged pleasantries with his younger sibling and walked on to take another to the elementary school.

“Miss the bus Leo?” I asked.  “Well, no, not really….we moved this weekend.  I had to take two busses to get here.  We moved to another apartment…they keep it real clean.  My other brother walked to school…..”  He went on to tell me that he had grown six inches since the end of school last year and now wears a size six shoe.  Their new apartment has three bedrooms, not two like the last one.  “So, you share a room with a brother?” “No, I share a room with both my brothers…my parents have a room and my cousins share the other room and we have two bathrooms…we used to all share one…now if someone is using the one upstairs, you can go downstairs to the one next to the kitchen!”

We finally arrive at the Middle School.  Not knowing the policy, I walked him into the office.  “There’s my brother…he walked to school….I was too cold.”  It dawned on me that this was the brother he had mentioned earlier.  I wasn’t aware that they attended the same school.  “You must be tired”, I said to the child, perspiration running down his face.  “I ran the whole way”, he said with a big smile and he was on his way to class.  Leo turned to me, “Thanks Mrs. Henry’s mom”.  “Give me a hug,” I said, “and have a good day at school”.  We parted ways and I couldn’t help but think, “Thank you…thank you for the gift of perspective.”

Will I still have a chaotic household when I return home this afternoon?  Yes.  Will I still need to discipline my children for inappropriate morning behaviors when they get home from school?  Yes.  Will the dog need to be walked and the cat fed?  Yes.  Will I still need to figure out what’s for dinner?  Yes.  Will there be phone calls and e-mails to return and deadlines missed?  Yes.   Will there be three piles of clean clothes still perched on my bed to fold and put away?  Yes.  Will they most likely go back into the laundry basket unfolded when it’s time to go to bed?  Yes.  Will we have issues in the morning?  Yes….BUT, I will have a different perspective given to me as a gift by an 11 yr. old child eager to get to middle school after having only to share a room with two other people instead of four and an opportunity to have a little more time and privacy in an extra bathroom in an apartment complex that is much cleaner than the last.