A poem for today by Milton at Don’t Eat Alone.

I got the same feeling reading this that I got recently when I heard a church leader praying for parents and caretakers. For once, the prayer lacked the perfunctory, obligatory feeling that many such prayers have: maybe it was because the leader prayed for patience for the specific, daily, ongoing stresses of staying emotionally available to your kids. This is one of the things I find most challenging myself, so hearing it spoken was validating.

Milton’s poem reminded me that my life, too, is a juggling act; one that perhaps I take too little joy in, but nevertheless execute as best I can. Every day is, indeed, show time, and thirteen years of parenting have taught me how to field a running chain-saw or two.