Little Crowds of Seconds

It's past noon and I'm still in my pajamas. I've needed to get to the grocery store for days. We are out of eggs, bread, shaving cream, cereal, chewing gum, toilet paper, shampoo, coffee creamer and mozzarella  cheese.

Yet, here I sit, having the best morning, the very best. My personal space is constantly being invaded, my ears are full of a steady barrage of chatter, and very frequently a small hand with purple fingernails gently, kind of, takes hold of the extra skin on my cheek or my chin and draws my attention quite literally to the work at hand.

There's so much to do away from this place, here at the end of her elbow, but NOWHERE more important.

Where else could I learn that she's going to finish her work in "a crowd of seconds," or that she's getting a very firm grasp of her numbers, or that when a marker is getting dry it is "running out of action."

Sitting on a step ladder, left over from yesterday's projects, she leans over now and then as she switches colors for a kiss on her barely fleshy cheek not caring that I'm still sporting my fresh-out-of-bed look and smelling of coffee, she cares that I'm still seated at her side, cheering her on as she proceeds from dot to dot to dot.

We're both showing off what we know this morning, this little one and I. She, showing her growing pencil and marker skills as she draws steadier and steadier lines from one number to the next, I showing my growing knowledge that these little moments during these little days are what build a mother who is attempting to build little people.

Just as Molly hasn't always known the proper way to hold her pencil, I've not always known how to hold on to these "little crowds of seconds". As I watch the lights turn on in those big brown eyes, I'm so terribly thankful that every now and again, a light flickers in my own education as well!

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” ~Henry Ford