It’s quiet, once again, in my house! All little ones snuggled and cuddled fast to sleep…and I’m typing in the glow of the Christmas tree lights, that are somewhat begging me to shut down the computer, sip my coffee, and read a good book! And true to cliche, it is raining outside as well!
I must admit in the past week I’ve become hooked on Pinterest. If you have not discovered Pinterest, (www.pinterest.com) save yourself and your sanity and stay far away. It’s like a light for bug zapping…it causes all time to stand still as you’re sucked into the vortex of a million ideas all from the internet “pinned” randomly and amazingly for your nudging enjoyment. And you get to “pin” those visual ideas to your virtual bulletin boards to be looked at, referenced, or in my case, purposefully ignored, until a time when you can really spend all your time just “surfing” the ideas that make your heart go “pitter, patter.”
I stayed away. Even being a member of the site, I stay far away. Why? Oh, because I know myself well-enough to not go towards the light. That was until last week. And then I got zapped.
The ideas are endless. The creativity of humans is astonishing (to quote my mother). And quite honestly, there is something about the site that transports me out of my tiny little existence into a world where I can make a concoction that will get out yellow arm pit stains, while creating a burlap wreath for my front door, and learning some parenting tips that are sure to “Raise a Well-Mannered Child”. Yes, all because of Pinterest.
But then I get in the spin cycle that is part of the initial zapping. The emotional spin cycle that says, “to be a great mom I need to label every little container in my son’s room with a cool surf motif name tag, and cut little hearts in my daughter’s sandwiches, and maybe dress them in upcycled clothes that I’ve created out of old t-shirts and dungarees (my new favorite world)”. The emotional spin that feeds those little lies that will tell me, “I am not enough. And whatever I’m doing right now, well, that can be bettered, and bettered, and documented, blogged about, commented on, and then even bettered.”
And I’m off. Running a race that nobody else is running. A race that is curiously never-ending. A race that drives me to exhaust myself to all hours of the night because I’ve got to be the best, or the most innovative, or the most multi-talented/well-rounded
Yet, my kids…my precious two kids who are sleeping upstairs, don’t really care about any of that. Instead, like Mark Darcy says in “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (one of my favorite movies and my favorite lines from it), they would say, “(We) like you (mom) just as you are.”
And really, isn’t that enough?
So my goal despite what my pinboards show, is to create an environment where they are loved, feel safe and secure, are understood and allowed to be who they were created to be. It is not to create a beautiful facade for other women to want to emulate, but to create the real deal where the people I love the most actually want to be.
This is my wish for you as well. Here’s to being and living “just as you are.”
Hugs!
R