It’s car-pick-up-line o’clock again.
The perpetual sheen of sweat gathered from walking to and from the car has my skin feeling like a glazed donut (gross), but I’m sitting with the air conditioning aimed at my face, in an idle car, waiting for my daughter to be finished with school for the day.
I’ve got a back seat girl, strapped in her car seat, chatting and yawning and fussing, but we are safe and the sound of explosions or gunfire does not ring outside in the still, September air… at least not where we are.
It can be easy to forget to be grateful.
I’ve found myself limiting my news input these past few years. “Everything in moderation”—the old adage has wisdom to it. But moderating information intake and claiming ignorance are different things. Once we know, we are responsible for our own actions in response.
I don’t know why it is that some are born in places of strife and suffering, and I won’t pretend that our nation is without many problems. But here we are, with breath and comparable tranquility.
What do we do with our stillness? Should we sit in comparison and feel better for our safe rhythms while not showing compassion or concern for another?
Maybe your family already contributes in different ways for immigrant families and people who’ve transplanted from a South American country. Maybe you give pre-made bags of water, dry goods, and sanitary items to homeless people who pass by your car window at stoplights. Maybe you support those who serve in child welfare or do something to support and honor our current or former military members.
Perhaps your family is reeling from illness (pandemic-related or not). Maybe you are struggling with income from job loss. Maybe you need help right now.
And, if you do not, one day you will need help too. That is life.
This is a group for mothers, but what are we if not people first?
As mothers, we need to instill in our children the desire to care for people other than ourselves. We need to instill the type of gratitude that looks outward to help another.
As a draw on our humanity, we can do the same.
The lessons I want to teach my kids, I find I need the most myself.
I don’t have a remedy for conflict in our greater world, but I can try to be a helper where I am with what I have.
