Thoughts.

“The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. … I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”
-Anna Quindlen

I love the quote above and feeling that it gives me. I also love being a mother. I am convinced it is what I was put here on this Earth to do. It is the duty that is meant to teach me the most, to cause me to grow the greatest distance on my journey.
I love my son. No matter how pessimistic, negative, or sad I feel about our world or bad people or unfortunate circumstances, I can look into the eyes of my boy and see a light from the Heavens above and feel complete joy.
He gives me purpose; to strive to be a better human being, to treat others more sweetly, and to scatter sunshine as I walk about our sometimes darkened world.
I have never felt such happiness as during my time as the mother of Rowan David or as the wife to Daniel James. I am grateful beyond words. And of course I struggle everyday, but by nothing that cannot be crushed by the weight of my blessed existence.

(Some of my thoughts that arose due to the tragic shooting in Tucson on January 8, 2011.)