the pendulum always swings back...

Yesterday was a day for taking stock... and while I typically try to employ some humor in these posts, I'm not sure if it fits. In the morning after getting the school-aged children up and out the door I drove to visit my very new baby cousin... who is beautiful in every way. Not only was he graced with an indescribably lovely baby cry in the key of C, he is all kinds of beautiful born to beautiful parents who couldn't be prouder. He will don carefully chosen clothing to leave the hospital in his expertly installed car seat where a warm stable home awaits filled with love and acceptance. I cried on the way home. I cried for his blessings... and for my own. I hope his future is filled with all the grace and love his brand new life deserves.

I went to work this same afternoon in a very different environment. I was awaiting dismissal and listening to a sweet little boy talking to his teacher and thinking on that sweetness when he casually mentions this sentence as if he's discussing weekend plans:

9 year old: "We're moving."

teacher: "You are?"

9 year old: "My Dad and I live with my Grandma and the house is going into foreclosure so we can't stay."

teacher: "Oh."

That was the exchange. So matter of fact. I had to step into the classroom because I felt like I got punched in the stomach. The vagary of it all. The fact that a nine year old was aware of "foreclosure"... the fact that the teacher's reaction was the same as it might have been when he heard the lunch specials earlier that day... it just floored me.

I guess it was just a wake up call. That everyone has their problems... and that I can't save them all. I wondered if I would ever develop that type of callous the teacher seemed to show... or if that was even what I witnessed... maybe it was just the well crafted response of a bleeding heart like mine. Maybe I'll have a response like that someday, too.

Bah... I'm not a judge of anything... except for who actually started the fight in the bathroom last night while brushing their teeth. Or who was actually playing with the DSi first. I should be so privileged.

So I'll just send a silent message that stability finds that family and all the other ones like that and worse... and try to roll through my own with a little more grace and candor... at least until the next fight breaks out...