Instead.

Some days, you wake up with a to-do list and a plan.
The goals: to clean, to rest, to organize, to enjoy quiet.
But that’s not always how life works out – thank goodness. 😉

Instead, your day is spent
Mall-wandering with family
Laughing loudly in dressing rooms
Sipping fancy Caribou drinks
And trying on shoes

Your day is full of
Exclaiming over cute dresses
Wandering the aisles of a health foods store
Savoring a sunny fresh lunch outside
Loading up animal feed
And giggling with a sister-in-law

An evening begins, up a dirt road
With more relatives gathering around tables pushed together,
Overflowing with stories
And the kind of laughter that the neighbors could hear –
If there were any neighbors 🙂

Instead of a quiet evening alone, you find yourself
Exchanging summer tales
Singing “Happy Birthday”
And staying late into the evening
Playing school with your 2nd-grade sis-in-law –
Except this time, you’re the student

And instead of a night spent by yourself, you
Carpool back home with family
Rumbling over dark dirt roads, slowing for deer
And soaking in deeper conversation

Then eventually, you stand outside,
Those all-day shopping bags in hand,
Forgetting their weight and the time
Because the way God has flung the stars across this jet-black ceiling
Lovingly whispers to you of your smallness –
And oh, the jaw-dropping stillness

And instead of an early teacher-bedtime,
You thank God for the hug of peace, and
You crawl much later under waiting covers and bask
In what this day was –
Living, breathing, laughing proof

That
Family love is stronger than you ever could’ve imagined
The sky and your Savior are more majestic than you remembered
And that
Life is so SO much bigger than your to-do list.