Which End Up?

Sometimes life goes rushing past so quickly that it’s almost just a dull roar. Having a toddler in the house is good– focusing on Jack and Jack’s needs can at least tune out the other stuff.

His life is so simple it makes my heart ache. He is loved and tended and fed and watered and cleaned and bedded and clothed. He’s played with, sang to, protected, and heard.

Meanwhile, on the rushing fringe life is moving at breakneck speed– one dear friend is falling in love while another is crawling out of a messy, messy divorce. One family has welcomed in a tiny daughter while another pal is packing up the last boxes for her youngest who has flown the nest for another 6 states away. My mother is gearing up for another 2 and a half months on the other side of the Atlantic while Robby’s folks are on the verge of moving back into their winter house. My nieces are growing up so fast they’ve become a blur with their own schedules and priorities and worlds. The politics at work ebb and flow with the usual flotsam and jetsam tossed about in the wake of it. I am suprised to find that I’ve missed the last of the season’s blueberries.

This afternoon, after a morning of tumbling about in Jack’s “gymnastics” class, he was fractious with a cold that still has his little nose dripping and his moods erratic. I confess that I was all too willing to stop working and laundering and thinking about dinner to cuddle and play trains.

He’s a good little compass in the storm.