My two year old delight is walking around with pretzels in a Boleslawiec pottery bowl. She is in yesterday’s dress, a dirty face, grubby fingers, and static hair.
She has huge eyes and is divine.
Her brother is flying Batman around the house and has told me on a number of occasions today that he is NOT hungry—he just needs chocolate chips, ice cream, and chips.
Apparently, those are NOT food items 😉
I offered to put my kids in the shower. Because, when you are a mom, you know your shower is not your shower. It is sprinkled with bath crayons, rubber toys, cups, and other assortments of water-proof items that make the perfect island escape.
Or Alcatraz.
Depends who is looking at it.
Island escape: Kids.
Alcatraz: Moms.
But, you see, the thing is today, outside my kitchen window, I saw a stork soaring over my home. In circles. It was so peaceful. And lovely. I watched it for about 5 minutes.
I was awestruck at the pace it soared, at the heights it went. At its perseverance to go around and around and around.
It was lovely and serene. It was divine. And it reminded me that I have a job to do that does not require rush.
It requires:
Strength
Perseverance
Patience
Time
And finally…Devotion
We have two extremely large stork nests just hundreds of yards from our home. I get to watch the divine birth of new stork babies summer in and summer out. And, yet, I still have so much to learn from them.
One: Storks are devoted to their mates. They are willing to travel the world to find the other and build a family together.
Two: Storks build their homes together. Piece by piece. They don’t get everything they want overnight. It takes hard work and time. They gather and hunt and place and piece together their home === stick by stick. This takes time.
Three: Storks are patient. The gentle circling to climb higher and higher was peaceful and encouraging in the same breath. Oftentimes, we want to summit in a sprint. To truly summit a mountain, however, takes patience. My husband climbed Mt. Elbrus on the Russian/Georgian border. It took extreme patience and step-by-step determination to reach the top. But they made it. In good shape. One of the highest peaks in the world. They did it! But, had they rushed, their bodies would have given out and they would have gotten sick or worse.
Patience…that’s what I saw this morning when watching my neighboring stork.
Four: Storks may travel up to 20,000km to go from home to home. Which means they persevere. Through it all. To get where they need to go. Enough said.
Five: Lastly, I have seen a stork up close. It is large and majestic. It walks without fear and flies unafraid of the neighboring hawk in the sky. It knows it is brave. It knows it is strong. And it knows that it has one job to do: raise its family right.
Today’s soaring stork reminded me that I don’t need to rush my children into perfection. That I need to guide them into little people who will, one day, leave the nest when they are ready. In the meantime, I should enjoy the task at hand.
Now, if you don’t mind…My Littles are running in circles, holding hands, and dancing in the kitchen. And I was just invited to join them!
I think I shall…
They can definitely HAVE THIS DANCE!
And 2 Makes Crazy 