Travel Companions

Well, I’m not used to traveling alone. I was very excited at the prospect of going on a weekend trip to my sister’s baby shower all alone. Even the plane ride promised to be good reading time (which comes few and far between at this little spot in my life). Alas, it was not to be. My body couldn’t handle this alone time and took the liberty of creating a new life to join me on my trip. That’s right. This new life joined me on my chin in the form of an enormous zit. One that had its own face and weather system. It talked when I talked. It ate when I ate. It met new people when I met new people. It hugged family members when I hugged family members, mocking me all the while.

Next weekend, I have the rare opportunity of traveling alone once again. This time, to my other sister’s baby shower. The old life on my chin has begun to fade, but it has called for help and a new life has come to take the place of the old. Traveling alone is not to be at this stage of life. Nature cries against it, screaming, “No! You are a young mother of three. Others at this stage of life do not boast of this opportunity—especially twice in one month. It is not your time to travel alone. You must be the care giver as you were meant to be.”

So, as I embark on my journey into the sky, do not be afraid to greet my travel companion as you greet me. It is just nature’s way. I will embrace my duties as a care giver. I will embrace my job to clean and pamper and feed. It is not a duty that lasts forever. Or is it? Ah, maybe this is the lesson I am supposed to learn. I will never be duty-free again. Becoming a mother has made me into a new and forever changed person—one who will always clean and feed and pamper, whether it is my own children, other people’s children, or nature’s children. Okay, okay. I will embrace it forever more, sheesh! (Isn’t there an easier, less embarrassing way to learn life lessons?)

Pictures:





I missed my plane after the shower! Oops. Well, the good part was that I got an extra night with my family.


Kara's shirt says "ask, then touch." A gift from Krista.


Here we all are--"the nuclear family," as David says--playing and laughing. The tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny were both on thier way to this house on the same night!