Will you stand with me, right where you are? Will you stand and see the blessings in the everyday? Here, take my hand?
All too often, we look ahead or behind at life–thinking of what could be or at what was. But, we need only to open our eyes to the blessings we have now. Right now. Right this second. If we spend too much time looking ahead or behind, we will miss the blessings right where we stand.
A few days ago, I awoke to a message from a friend from my early teaching career 15 years ago. We haven’t seen one another in 11 years and while we have talked here and there, our lives together are still in the school I once loved in the beach town I started my marriage and my career.
The message was like a sliding board and through the words of it, I was transported back there to it all–days spent teaching and evenings spent with friends and my husband. Weekends were spent grading by the side of the community pool or in a beach chair at the beach. I worked out when I wanted to, shopped and meticulously planned my outfits, and spent many days simply reading. I had good girlfriends then and we had time for real friendships. We were young and free in ways I haven’t been in almost seven years. And while I truly love and savor my life, I’d be lying if I told you there weren’t days when I miss it all. And for a minute, the passing of time made me sad.
But then, I simply stood where I was and remembered that what matters, really, is here in the here and now. This was my view that day as I stopped to take it in. I stood and look at what I saw with my small children in tow. As Oliver says, I simply needed to stand where I was and be blessed.
We stand holding the hands of small children. We stand as mothers who know their hands heal. We stand as authentic friends without masks. We stand as women reaching for their dreams, whatever they may be. We stand and we are blessed. We stand. Here, hold my hand?
Thanks for Mothering the Divide with me tonight and standing here with me, as we count our blessings right here where we are. Right here in the here and now.
