SO many of us go through life taking on responsibilities in which we are looked upon as super moms, or super dads, or super human beings. Here’s a lovely incident by a widower for such as you:
‘Alone, at the dining room table, I sat in tears: I was a recently widowed man who was determined to give them as normal and stable a home life as possible. I put on a happy face for them. I kept their activities as close to how they had always been as I could. This nightly ritual was just as it had always been with the exception that their mother was now gone. I had done it again: another night successfully concluded.
Sitting at the dining room table, I slumped in my chair, aware that this was the first time since I came home from work that I’d been able to just sit down. I had cooked and served and encouraged two little ones to eat. I had done the dishes while responding to their many requests for attention. The bath, the stories, the backrubs, the singing and now, at long last, a brief moment for myself. The silence was a relief, for the moment.
Then it all crowded in on me: the fatigue, the weight of the responsibility, the worry about bills I wasn’t sure I could pay that month. The endless details of running a house. Only a short time before, I’d been married and had a partner to share these chores, these bills. These worries!
And loneliness! I felt as I thought I was at the bottom of a great sea of loneliness. It all came together and I was at once lost, overwhelmed. Unexpected, convulsive sobs overtook me. I sat there, silently sobbing. Just then, a pair of little arms went around my middle and a little face peered up at me. I looked down into my five-year-old son’s sympathetic face.
I was embarrassed to be seen crying by my son. “I’m sorry, son, I didn’t know you were still awake.” I don’t know why it is, but so many people apologize when they cry and I was no exception. “I didn’t mean to cry. I’m sorry. I’m just a little sad tonight.” “It’s okay, Daddy. It’s okay to cry, you’re just a person!”
I can’t express how happy he made me, this little boy, who in the wisdom of innocence, gave me permission to cry. He seemed to be saying that I didn’t have to always be strong, that it was occasionally possible to allow myself to feel weak and let out my feelings. Thank you, my son!’
There are many of you, I’m sure, who’s shoulders tremble with concealed anxiety; businesses that have fallen, unsure jobs, sickness or the fear of the virus! Maybe, in your bravery you need to hear the same words, “Cry! You’re just a person!” But, hush! Suddenly you realize it’s not the voice of an ordinary child, but One who was born in a manger just for you, who understands exactly what you must be feeling, and is willing to take you through it all! Let Him..!
