Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Eye See

"You are the maiden of my eye"...I once heard that this phrase meant that you are looking at somebody so closely that you can see the reflection of yourself in their pupil. Who appears in that reflection? Do you recognize that person? What type of person are they seeing?

There are plenty of hours in the day where I catch myself looking so deeply into Evelyn's eyes that I see me. Sometimes the reflection is of a glowing mother, other times it is of a wrung out exhausted version of myself. The kicker is that Evelyn is being shaped by whomever it is that is staring back at
me from her eyes. If the reflection is of a patient,

loving, faith filled woman so she shall become. If it is of a worrisome, frustrated, angry woman...so she shall become.

Thermometers are a good guage of our physical health. And whomever appears in the pupil of Evelyn's eye is a transparent barometer of my emotional health. But, it takes slowing down, being still and honest enough to see who it is she sees.

Oatmeal. The doc suggested we try oatmeal. Evelyn suggested not. See picture for further details.



Toys. It's time for Evelyn to start playing wth more toys to keep her stimulated and foster her development right? The choices are overwhelming, and our place is small. It made me wonder what kids in Africa do without an Exersaucer, and Baby Einstein videos?...We recently visited a refugee family from Somalia who has a 3 month old girl.
Two families all crammed into a one bedroom, dark apartment. I immediately felt sorry for them and wanted to bring them a boatload of toys. After a 1/2 hour of seeing them laugh, play and be so unbelievably content, I instead felt sorry for me for thinking that they needed things/toys to be happy. Good reminder.

So the New Year begins. The pages are unwritten. A blank year is ahead of us to realize that "someday" is today and to get boogying on past procrastinations and dreams unfulfilled. SWEET DREAMS...