Reading the last line from Longfellow’s poem “A Psalm of Life” it occurred to me that he could have been talking about parenting:
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Labor and wait. Like planting a vegetable gardening. Or parenting a teenager.
Yesterday’s labor involved water slides and roller coasters.
Cecilia has been chafing at her bedtime recently. She also thinks it’s strange that both her parents go to bed so early. She wasn’t shy with her opinions but I was ready for this one!
Every parent quickly learns the importance of sleep. The kids are always a mess if they don’t get enough sleep. But so are the parents.
I’m a mess. I’m grouchy. I need a nap by 9 a.m. Who catches the brunt of that? Okay, Michelle first, but then the girls.
“I don’t want to be a hypocrite and I want to be a better Dad so I go to bed early.”
She didn’t have a quick answer for that one and she tucked me right in.
The news this week has been tough and now we are finishing with a hurricane. I hope everyone’s taking care of themselves, including getting some sleep. Everyone will benefit.
Once a year, when I was a boy, a small, traveling carnival would appear in town and setup at the abandoned naval base in the middle of town. From afar, especially at night, the lights of the rides, the smell of popcorn and sugar and the peripatetic palaver of the barkers was an irresistible allure to us kids.
Of course, as I wrote that first sentence it occurred to me it also sounds like the synopsis of a Stephen King novel.
