RELEASE CORD

I'm sitting at my dining room table helping Chloe with her Gold Rush project, of course she's home sick with a fever. Conrad dumps cereal all over the floor and drags the vacuum outside. I peer into the garage and Caleb is scaling the darn inside of the half open garage door like Spiderman and reaching for the release cord.

Calmly, I ask, "Caleb, what are you doing?"

Now parallel with the cement floor, he turns his head slightly over his shoulder and yells, "I HAVE NO IDEA!"

He pulls the cord and goes slamming down to the ground, riding the door like a stallion.

I swear to you, you think I'd be so fed up with the chaos around me, but, I start laughing so hard. Chloe is cracking up, Caleb's whimpering like a puppy dog, Conrad's yelling from God knows where in the house, and I can do nothing but hold my crotch and laugh my freakin' head off. (Three kids does not fare well for the bladder btw. Soccer requires huge pads now...another awesome result of being mom. Squirrel)

Isn't this a perfect analogy to stay-at-home motherhood? We attempt the climb, trying to reach whatever there is to attain, get there, expect greatness, then get slammed to the ground. Worse yet, we have absolutely "NO IDEA" why we tried the climb in the first place. Brilliant. 

Today's prayer: "Lord, thanks for the reminder that release cords aren't always the way out, never the way up, but always the way down. Knowing You doesn't make life easy, it makes it easier to climb and softer when we fall. So, until the next slamming, because there will be one, like dear Caleb, I'll hold on for dear life, even if I have no stinkin' clue why. You're sure to show me sooner or later and I'll thank you then."