Thursday, February 2, 2012

My Flowers



To be sure, I have to credit an online acquaintance for sharing this Mother Teresa sentiment (it's not a direct quote, but a paraphrase), but as soon as I heard it I KNEW I wanted to share it here.

How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers!

Anti-child sentiment seems to be running pretty high these days. I think it's mostly a product of our society. Our cultural catchphrase could be "Convenience is King". It seems that nearly everything is being remade to fit more streamlined, efficient models. I could be totally behind that, if the purpose was to get the busywork of our days out of the way and focus on the important things - family togetherness, fostering a sense of community spirit, service, and meditation. But this is convenience for convenience's sake - to make space in our lives for more technology and consumption. But I digress. Children are the ultimate inconveniences, are they not? They take our thoughts and time away from work and entertainment. They have little respect for our schedules, indelicate habits at the most inopportune times (why does there always seem to be a covert poopy diaper operation just as you're trying to head out the door?), are terribly demanding and covetous of our me-time (that phrase drives me absolutely mad, by the way, but that's another blog post) and require a monstrous investment with, at times, questionable returns. It's no wonder, I suppose, that there are a lot of people out there that certainly love their children, but view them more as part of a natural life progression/stage that is to be endured bravely, enjoyed on occasion, and then checked off in life's little checklist - right between "get married" and "professional success!". I want to reject this modern mindset. I want my children to be the flowers in the garden of my life.

1 comments:

Mom and Dad said...

I love this. I have always admired Mother Teresa for her wisdom and strive, however poorly, to live up to her example. Our grandkids (and kids too I guess, but don't tell them ;)) surely are the flowers in our lives. Glad we don't have to deal with the diapers anymore though, lol!