Mothers Hold All the Things

The appointment times and permission slips.

The meal plans and the grocery lists and the names of all the foods each person will and will not eat.

The weekend plans and weeknight carpool.

We hold the schedule of feeding and changing and napping and where the blankies are at any given moment

The who is friends with who right now and who is not. And all the feelings that are brought home from school.

The playdates and the sleepover plans and which teenager is going where when with who and oh my goodness did they get there amd why are they not home yet?

The medications that need to be given and the who will no longer drink almond milk this week and who needs you to buy them new socks.

We hold all the bags and the backpacks when the kids want to race to the car.

The rocks and treasures handed over by sweet preschoolers and all the water bottles the teenagers have you to hang onto for “just a second”.

We hold our breaths when our children take their first steps or try out for the play or go to make the shot.

We hold the worry that goes along with pieces of our heart being out in this world.

We hold the heartbreak and tears of each of our people as well as their joys and triumphs.

We hold the memories of a thousand moments our kids will never remember but that have made up who each of these people are.

And man are we hard on ourselves when our hands and hearts are so full we drop something.

We forget an appointment or have no idea where we left the blankie or we buy the wrong milk that no one will drink.

And oh my word do we feel like failures if we have to hand something off or ask someone to pick up our slack.

So often we just try and hold it all completely on our own.

We hide the things we drop from everyone, kicking them under the table where they come out at night to haunt us while we should be sleeping and we try to make ot look like we’ve got it all together.

Friends, you don’t have to hold all the things alone. You really really don’t.

You can set some of it down. Really.

You can ask for help even when your brain berates you that you SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO IT DARN IT.

You can talk about the things you dropped or the things that are so heavy they keep you from remembering to buy someone socks.

Then maybe we can all start raising our hands to say we’ve dropped things too. We can confess for once and for all it’s too much for one human person.

And we can lean on God himself who is big enough to take it off our hands if just for a moment so we can catch our actuall breath.

You are not alone in the holding.

You are not meant to carry it all.

And we need to remember the important things are rarely dropped…the love and the memories and judging from my dresser drawer even a good amount of those rocks my kids handed me when they were small.

Hold on to the love friends.

And sometimes let your people hold onto you.