Taking a Walk on the Wild Side!
When I was a little girl I used to dream of adventures. I did not like living a boring life. I wanted to accomplish great feats. Yes, I wanted to save the world!
Even in young adulthood, I still held to these desires. I approached each day with fresh renewal to change the things that needed to be changed and find the answers to questions that no one could seem to find the answers to. I knew that I could make a difference.
Then... I began having children.
Now, don't mistake what I am saying, please. I love my children dearly. They are the most important people in my life. I would trade my life for theirs in an instant if that is what is needed.
With the addition of one child to my life, I found my resolve to change the world losing a little energy. I became periodically preoccupied by motherly duties. After the second and then the third child, I found myself preoccupied constantly with motherly duties. I decided I would have to wait about 18 years to save the world because as a mother of three I just didn't have time. I found myself delicately balancing having a career, being a mother and being a wife. At times, I felt as if I were super woman.
Then. . .my life completely fell apart.
My marriage ended. Though it did not work, in an effort to save my marriage, I gave up my career. What a tragic and devastating series of events were to follow in the next few months. I found that I once again must resolve to save the world. Only this time it was not the entire world that needed my attention. It was the world my children were living in that needed some stability.
Alone and wounded, all my children and I had were each other when the day was over. What I have learned through this time in my life is that only having each other can and is enough to sustain us.
I now find myself a single mother of three very lively children. Though they are the most wonderful little people who have ever entered my life, they can be quite challenging at times. Honestly, all children are at times. That is because they are still learning what they should and should not do.
I have decided that the most important and challenging job of my life is shaping and molding these little beings into responsible and successful adults. I must remain calm in the face of challenges so that when they grow up, they will do the same. I must love them no matter what they do, even if that includes one of them getting up in the middle of the night and finger painting the hallway wall. Someday they will have children of their own, and they will need to love them without expectations just as I have done.
In a way, I feel that by raising responsible successful children, I am saving the world. After all, it is the children of today who will grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow.
I must say that it is not easy being a single mother of three children, but I know that someday when I have gray hair, and I sit in my rocking chair beside my fireplace with grandchildren playing quietly on the floor, I will look back through time and know that it was all worth it. When my children are happy and successful adults, I will think fondly of every tear that I have shed and every prayer said on their behalves.
Yes, I can still do my part to save the world. I will start in my own home with my own little angels.