Monday musings

So there I am in line at Target, it’s two days after Thanksgiving and the world has become a planet of shoppers. A young mother, who looks exhausted by the way, is standing behind me and her cart is overflowing. The little girl who is hanging onto the mom’s cart, clearly has more energy than her mother. She is doing a little dance as she hangs onto the cart. One leg goes up and come down, followed by the other leg.

“I can’t wait to get home to watch it!” the little girl says. “I can’t wait! I can’t wait!”

I wait to hear what mom will say. I am expecting anything from “First, you have to clean your room like you promised,” to “Stop hanging on the cart like that. You’re going to pull it over on yourself.”

But she says nothing.

“I love that movie!” the girl squeals. “I can’t wait to watch it!” Legs up. Legs down.

Mom says nothing.

“You’re the best mommy I’ve ever had!”

I tip my head to hear the mother’s response.

But Mom says nothing.

She’s either heard it before, or she didn’t hear it all.

And both of these thoughts make me kind of sad. I want to turn to that mother and tell her something that is very much none of my business. I want to tell her, “You will blink, and she’ll be gone. Grown up. And you will long for the days when, in her eyes, no one could hold a candle to you. Believe me, you don’t want to miss it.”

But I don’t tell The Best Mommy any of this. I make my way through the line, aware of the happy dancer behind me, and I leave. I do hope this mom will figure it out on a day when she’s not so tired. And bored with motherhood.

Now onto a brighter thought. My good friend Robin Lee Hatcher has a lovely new story out, just in time for the holidays. In A Cloud Mountain Christmas (Robin’s story is in “Hearts Evergreen,” a collection of two novellas from Steeple Hill), introduces you to Maddie Scott, who is reeling from the news that her ex-husband has remarried and is expecting a child. She heads to Idaho’s Cloud Mountain Lodge to negotiate the sale of a valuable manuscript discovered there. But could the lodge’s proprietor, Tony Anderson, a man she knew years before in college, be just what Maddie needs to have a merry Christmas after all? Want a good love story? Well, here ya go. To read an excerpt from A Cloud Mountain Christmas, visit Robin’s web site:
http://www.robinleehatcher.com/hearts_evergreen.htm. Robin is a lovely person, inside and out, and she knows how to weave a tale that makes you glad God thought up romance to make our time here on Earth magical.

Have a great week – and lavish your love on your children.