Day 25

It's one of those weeks.  One of those weeks where life is so jam-packed I start to feel dizzy. School disco! School triathalon! School excursion! School sleepover! Pupil free day! Bike ed! End of year function! There is a growing sense that my life's work is just to get everyone where they need to go, with the right equipment,  on the right day, for um, the rest of my life. It's easy to feel a little Oh, you can't be serious? about it all.

And then I remember to ask myself; What is the alternative?

And I remember that...

I am not childless. 

I am not sitting bedside in a paediatric ward wiping someone's feverish brow through a dreadful illness.

I am not coaxing my little friends through crippling anxiety about participating.

I am not wondering if a life-threatening peanut will come their way.

I am not walking 10 km a day to give them clean water to drink.

I have four garden-variety, bull-at-a-gate children who love to live life. Yes, some days are busy and noisy.  Some days, someone in the mix is overtired and cranky. Some days, that someone is me. Some days, I wish extra-curricula was just a weird Latin phrase I didn't understand.

But when I remember the alternative, I run around like a loony-bin to find their bike helmets and permission slips and I wipe the toast crumbs from their cheeks and I kiss their soft faces and say, Have a great day. I love you. And they run out the door to live life, and I give silent thanks I am not living any of the alternatives. 

Indigo Kate x