I laughed so hard I cried the other day leaving work.
I’d had a particularly rough week, juggling a schedule for our family of five, spending countless more hours in the car than I’d prefer, including an ER visit for my ten-year-old with a scratched cornea (healing well now), and was crawling towards the finish line of the weekend.
My coworker, Donna, was empathetic as I walked toward the exit and she called out: “I wish you pockets of rest!”
“What?” said Luke, our newly-hired production guy, walking by looking confused. “What did you say?”
“Pockets of rest,” I smiled. Donna and I shared a knowing glance.
Luke is in his twenties and drives a cool car. I used to be like Luke.
“Donna wished me pockets of rest because she knows if she tells me to have a weekend full of rest, I would roll my eyes. She knows this weekend I have a son who needs to get to a basketball game at 10 on Saturday, and a teenager with a hair appointment at 12:30. She could assume I also have two birthday parties to get various kids to, as well as my own Dads birthday who as-I’m-telling-you-this-out-loud-I’m-realizing-I-have-not-gotten-a-gift-yet.” *makes mental note to take care of that on the way to driving my daughter to her third instructed Drivers Ed appointment.
Luke laughed and I watched a lightbulb above his head turn on. I continued on by inviting him to help me and my husband shuttle all these kids around town in his cool car.
“You know where to find me,” he offered.
He was a good hire.
As Mothers Day approaches, if you find yourself holding 99% of everyones details in your brain, if you know that your kid has a Pioneer project due in school on Friday that is going to require you to supervise him baking 24 mini-cornbread muffins, if you monitored that kids birthday with 6 other ten-year-old boys and never once let your guard down because you didnt want someone to take an accidental bowling ball to the head because they combine the sport with Parkour, if you have a newly permitted driver who needs to get her fifty hours of daytime practice in while you remain calm from the passenger seat, if you always have a purse of snacks because one of your kid has food allergies, and if you’ve already met your medical deductible for the year, I GOT YOU.
And if you sometimes find yourself moved to tears at the tenderness of Jesus who holds you as you hold all of them, I’m right there with you.
Wishing you pockets of rest this Mothers Day,
