Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Unexpected Joy

A look. One look can bring you up, or bring you down. I woke up *mad* today because my 4 month old woke up before 6 am and would not go back to sleep. I hate getting up before 7 am. I hate getting up at 7 am too, but that's pretty much when the other kids get up, so my day has to start.
Growl, growl. I growled at everyone this morning, especially my 4 year old. The house is a wreck. What else is new, but it was more so because last night we made жаворонки (zhavoronki) in honor of the 40 martyrs.



This morning, the plan was to deliver some zhavoronki to some members of our parish. The house was beckoning me: clean me, clean me! My four year old was whining: read to me, read to me! and the baby wasn't napping according to plan. Of course. I did the dishes. I read to child. I picked up baby. We got in the car. In the back of my mind I'm thinking, is this worth it? Why am I doing this. I have 3 kids to tend to, I have a dirty house, I need to be cooking. The answer came to me at the third stop. Although I called some people to warn them of our arrival, I hadn't called here. We knocked on the door, and daughter handed over the bag.
-"What is this?"
-"We made zhavoronki for you."
And there it was. The look. The look that brought me up, the look that made it all worthwhile. We had brought joy into someone's life. Unexpected joy. For them, and for me. My heart soared, and I thanked God for hearing my prayer to see us through this good deed. That's when I realized that this wasn't just about us. It wasn't about going home feeling good about ourselves for handing out our baked goods. Our good deed actually touched people. Bringing joy into someone's life today made our life a little easier somehow. Daughter seemed happier to play independently as I cleaned the house. I was able to cook and clean. Baby still didn't cooperate, but hey. You can't have it all, can you?


1 comment:

  1. I know I am about a year late for this one.. but when you put others ahead of yourself you do get a break. :-)

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