Parental Evenings

The part of parenting where you've had a long, full, busy day and you're tired and want nothing more than to stretch out on the couch in a quiet house and read or watch a show or movie but you have to move through the after-school time, homework, dinner, bath and bedtime--yeah, that's rough. You simply don't get to relax when you want to (or need to). It always has to wait until after the kids go to bed, as do the time-sensitive emails, phone calls, and any planning and preparation for the next day, the next month, the trip, the guests, the job, the what-have-you.

I don't always notice or keenly feel how much I miss having down time as soon as I've arrived home from a meeting or work. But I feel it tonight. I feel the aching delay of my own time to recoup, relax and unwind after a busy day. I must supervise bath, play a little game, brush some little teeth and tuck in a little boy and then, and only then, will I take to the couch. I can do it. Just 45 more minutes until the big exhale and the sinking of my weary body into my sofa's soft embrace. Hang tough, mamas! I'd like to pass out some endurance awards to all my mom friends, and to myself. :)

Let Us Be Dissatisfied Until ...

MLK still speaking loud and clear through the e-stream. 

I wasn't able to embed the video, but I do enjoy listening to King's speeches so I'm including the link in case you have time or inclination to listen to the King. :)

http://vimeo.com/11154217

"Let us be dissatisfied until ..."

I'm starting a list of what I will be dissatisfied with until it is transformed by Love that protects and emboldens. Human trafficking, abuse of all kinds, neglect, rape, starvation, poverty, terrorism, oppression, warfare, genocide, violence, theft and piracy, racism, assault, lack of education, unequal status. 

So thankful for the people who make these things their problem, their business. I want to see transformation in individuals, cultures, governments, nations. I want to see LOVE. I want to work and pray toward it and join others who already are.

"What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic.

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.

Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love."

~MLK

"There will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.”

~MLK

"When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows."

~MLK

"This is our hope for the future, and with this faith we will be able to sing in some not too distant tomorrow, with a cosmic past tense, "We have overcome! (Yes) We have overcome! Deep in my heart, I did believe (Yes) we would overcome."

~MLK

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart! I have overcome the world." 

~Jesus~ John 16:33