Yesterday was a really bad day. I thought I was competent and in control, but in the end, (as it turns out), I was not.
I won’t burden you with all the details. I will, however, share the one event that led to this downward, daylong spiral. I had pulled the van out into the driveway so that the kids could clean it out before piano lessons. I walked back into the house to get ready…
…and somehow, somewhere, I lost my keys.
I just had them in my hand! How could I have lost them?!
For an hour we searched the house in vain. For an hour I prayed—and prayed—to St. Anthony. He was busy, evidently, and finally I had to just phone the piano teacher and cancel.
Ouch, that hurt my prideful nature.
Ouch, that hurt my wallet.
At that point, my brain pretty much froze in place. I had the kids do some lessons, yes, but they (the lessons) felt uninspired and boring. That made me, (the teacher with the tender heart), uninspired and boring. Right? Right!
(Cue bag of kettle chips.)
It didn’t help that Anthony kept spitting up everything I fed him—great big enormous glurps that covered my arm and my shoes and the carpet.
It didn’t help that the ingredients for supper were still at the Super Target next to piano lessons.
It didn’t help that—woops. I said I wasn’t going to burden you with all the details. Suffice it to say in my own wordy way that the day kept going downhill from there.
I woke up this morning feeling sour and hung-over. I wasn’t really hung-over, by the way, unless you count feeling guilty about all the chips I consumed.
(Because that’s what I do when I’m feeling stressed. I overeat.)
(Big surprise, that.)
So yes, I woke up feeling downhearted. I sipped my coffee at the computer, letting the kids sleep in as I tried to wake up. After leaving a comment on Jamie’s blog, (she had as bad a day yesterday as I did—probably worse), I rose from the computer with a new sense of purpose.
We totally needed to get to Mass.
We just had to get to Mass.
And so we went.*
The rain arrived at the same time we did and we raced through the parking lot trying to dodge the drops. I had to laugh—we’d forgotten an umbrella, so my almost-five-year-old Angela put a hooded frog towel on her head.
I called her the frog princess.
Do you know, if we had cleaned out the van as planned, that beach towel would not have been there. I began to think about how the average day is really a series of little blessings and little curses. If only we can hold fast—and prayerfully—throughout the curses, it won’t be long before a blessing comes our way.
I could give you many examples but this post is long enough already. Therefore, I’ll just close with one. We had no sooner settled into the pew than Angela whispered her need to go potty. They know to go before we leave the house! Still, they “forget” so often.
Curses! Little curses!
Hold fast. Be strong. Pray for the grace of a nice blessing.
On our way to the bathroom, we passed the very same woman I spoke about in this post. (You know, the lip-pursing, head-shaking lady?) I gave her a big smile as the girls and I brushed past, and guess what? Guess what?!
She gave me a big eye-crinkly smile in return.
That, my friends, was an unspeakable blessing.
The blessing after the curse.
All for the greater glory of God,
*We still haven’t found those darn keys. My husband dug out a spare for me.
Dear Margaret,
We have all had days like the day you describe. Days when it seems everything goes wrong and it is hard to count our blessings. I wish I could go back in time and appreciate more the blessings among the thorns.
You lost your keys, but your kids were cleaning your van! What a blessing. Anthony was spitting up, but he is still so young, you can make it all better with a kiss and a hug. Sometimes, when all of our children are young, it is hard to bring the prospective you will have in ten years. Which is unfortunate for what now constitutes a bad day in a few years will seem so silly. Looking back, I realize how true this was of our lives.
I have really good kids. Kids who are industrious, kids with gentle hearts, who make me proud daily. That is a fact. Last month my twenty-two your old son, tried to commit suicide. He did not succeed! Because, a young man on the other side of the globe saw his facebook post and phoned a friend, who phoned a friend, who phoned our home, and we found him in time. What enormous blessings!
Why did he try? An acute depression, brought on by the stress of applying to grad school. We are all mending, one day at a time, and not taking anything for granted at the moment, praying we don't forget our gratitude or allow the small things to take on exagerated proportions anytime soon.
Lost keys, missed lessons, changed dinner plans, in the big picture these really do not merit even a blip on the radar.
What a beautiful post, as well as anonymous' story. God is so good! I am really learning this week in particular the lesson that we need to pray and trust. God is so good!
God Bless!
totally understand a day like that–and the lack of ingredients for dinner, lack of a plan for dinner–oh it's a downward spiral from the beginning!
glad Mass made it better. 🙂
Dear Margaret, I've had a crazy month like that. Totalled van but no one really hurt and not my fault, my dad died after a long illness but so with the Church and Jesus after decades away, and yesterday after over a year our big blessing of an adoption date next month for our little not quite 3 yr old foster daughter such a blessing after all the delays and holdups in the case and all she has gone through in her short life. My cheap prepaid cell phone has been lost for a week though and St. Anthony is not listening to me either. My cell phone can be replaced as well as your keys, we should just try to keep counting our blessings and praying for the grace to handle the rest.
It was one of those days. Yesterday our little boy Michael fell at the park and was knocked cold, he spent the night at the hospital for observation. Thank God it was just a concussion. When times are tough I lean on St. Joseph!
I can empathise with the lost car keys. I once lost mine in a car park. Parked the car, got out a child and put her in a stroller, went to lock the car … no keys. I knew I had the keys. I'd been driving with them a couple of minutes before so they just *had* to be there. I finally found them twenty minutes and a howling child or two later. They had slipped down between the driver's seat and the door frame. Hope you have a lovely weekend to make up for the miserable day 🙂
Dearest Anonymous #1 and #2, I am so sorry for your hardships! Thank you for taking the time to write and know that you both are in my prayers.
That is to say, you are all in my prayers. Becky, may your beloved father rest in peace.
Margaret, When I had my first two ages 2 and infant, I was all ready to take the infant to a doctor's well baby checkup but could not find my car keys. I searched the house for some time and the two year old fessed up that she had them but put them somewhere. I think I started out calmly asking her to remember but I know it deteriorated to me pleading and crying in frustration trying not to yell at a two year old. I had to cancel the appointment and do you know where the keys turned up? Under a chair pad cushion in the kitchen. I discovered them when I sat on it. And anonymous is right -that was fourteen years ago and is a funny memory now. At the time, I thought I was a horrible mother.
After scouring my house for missing keys, I called a friend to moan. She immediately came over to help. We both thought she was ridiculous. She sat the kids on the basement steps looking down at the jumbled playroom and had them pray to St Anthony (we had already done this, many times over the previous hours), and then she sent them off ot different corners to "look again." She came up, feeling frustrated and walked over to where I was sitting on the couch (probably nursing a baby). She saw a clear plastic bin on the floor next to me filled with Little People. She picked it up, turned it over and looked inside. Right there were my keys. She was in my hosue for about 3 minutes total.
I love St Anthony. He helps me find things before I even know they are missing sometimes.
I now keep about 3 or 4 spare sets of keys in the house. (St Anthony is great, but in case he's busy, I need a backup).