QUIET IN A STORM OF LIFE

Have you had a chance to step outside today and take a deep breath of air? What about a walk in a park where you can be among the trees and grasses?

Today at Osage Park, I walk by a white-haired man reading to his son. His son is not young either, but he sits in a wheelchair with a baseball cap on, with his head slumped against his chest. I wonder about the man. How had he found the reserve in himself to sit quietly with his son and read to him long after his son's childhood?

We expect our children to grow, leave our homes, and make their way in the world. As with a few of my friends' children, sometimes that doesn't happen. Instead, intense parenting, including bathing, dressing, and feeding, continues for a lifetime with help during the school years, but after that, little respite. I watch my friends as they struggle with daily life and find joy in small things. They find resources outside their homes to help their grown children and to give themselves the needed breathing room from the strains of daily parenting care.

A lifelong caregiver could easily be filled with resentment and discontent. Yet I have seen my friends open a space within themselves that gives them the chance to have an accepting and grateful life. Not that they don't rail against the sky or ask themselves time and time again, "Why me?"

As I walk by the man and his son, I think that the quiet moments allow them to embrace the life they have in a way they never envisioned for themselves. Seeing them together I can see the beauty and grace in the life they have absorbed. Those quiet times carry with them a sense of peace that I was able to share for just a few seconds on my walk around the park.

I drew both of these sketches on an iPad using the app, Paper 53.

Take a deep breath today.

Peace be with you, Annie.


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"Quiet in the Storm of Life" appeared August 12 in Story Circle Network's blog, One Woman's Day. Go to http://www.storycircle.org/index.php and click on the Online link to find the blog. If you are a woman who likes to write, join Story Circle Network. They offer classes, encouragement, and opportunities for your work to be published.