Safe to forget

“The only mothers it is safe to forget on mothers day are the good ones.”

Ha! Isn’t that the truth? Jeff and I are so blessed to both have “good ones” in the mom department, but isn’t it true in all areas that there are those in your life who are “safe” to forget and those who are not? For those who are not, there is an understood expectation in that relationship that you better do xyz on such-and-such day or so-and-so will be sorely disappointed.  And then how do you wind up feeling?

Exhausted.

Oh my. I always want to be a person who is “safe to forget”!

Of course I was not forgotten yesterday but blessed. Both my husband and parents gave me a dear little gift, but it wasn’t until late last night I realized the secret of being “safe to forget.”

I sat in the old cream rocking chair in Heidi’s room. Both kids had asked to be rocked, and yes! was my answer to both.  So they filled up my lap, spilling over, arms wrapped around each other and faces nuzzled into my neck.  I rocked, kissing the tops of their heads, unable to speak, not wanting to move, knowing this moment would last only moments. I closed my eyes and knew:

These are my gifts.

The term “mother’s day gift” is redundant. Who needs a gift when one is a mother? The gifts are already given. They have pulses and eyelashes and puppy-dog breath. They are exhilarating and exhausting and infuriating and intoxicating.  They are gifts. It’s wonderful that my dear husband gave me a gift yesterday, but the gift has already been given.

That’s what makes us safe to forget.

Some of us, myself at times, forget that a zillion beautiful gifts have already been given. When we forget, we expect everyone else to give them to us. We might not expect a gift wrapped in paper or bow, but we expect a creative day or a special surprise or just the right words or someone to read our minds and give us what we want and do not say. And then at the end of the day you know how we feel?

Exhausted. (And so does everyone else.)

What if, instead, we realized each day that the gifts are already given. On mother’s day we have the gifts we hold upon our laps. On a birthday we have the gift of LIFE, of breath, of being born and still being alive. On an anniversary we have a marriage–glorious picture of divine love–no matter how imperfect it is. On Christmas we have God with us!! Who needs anything else? On Valentine’s Day we have the Lover of our Souls.  On Easter we have a risen Lord.

Every holiday celebrates a gift that is already given.

And if we spent our precious time celebrating these already-gifts, I wonder what the result might me …

We might become safe to forget.

We might even forget about ourselves.

Oh blessed state, there is no joy like that.