Byron Katie says love what is. Eckhardt Tolle (A New Earth) says love the NOW, it's all there is. Jesus says "turn the other cheek." Oprah says live your best life. But I ask myself: Do/did any of these people have children?
During a rather tumultuous afternoon with my prepubescent daughter and trotting-close-to-her-heels (in attitude) son, I wondered what was lovable about two children screeching at me for no apparent reason.
"I want to play soccer," is my seven-year-old son's standard line. Perhaps in fifteen years, when he's playing the Big Leagues, I will smile back to these moments of pure torture that two hours on the field plus another twenty-five minutes in the house batting the ball around simply weren't enough. Or my near ten-year-old daughter tossing a stinging remark about how I never wait for her but how she has to wait for me as I stand panting at the top of the hill with my bike waiting for them all to catch up.
Not really loving what is right now. But, as Eckhardt so lovingly says, This too shall pass. Or was it Jesus?
