This is an unexpected post because my son taught me a valuable lesson in the most ironic way possible.
Yesterday I decided to make some diaper rash salve. I prefer making my own rather than store brand if I have a choice, but that's a whole different blog post. My point is that I make from scratch- I grow the lavender and calendula flowers, harvest them, dry them, infuse them in oils, and add them to the other ingredients when they are ready. It takes MONTHS to do this, but I enjoy the process because of the results the salve yields- the best diaper rash free bums for my babies.
Yesterday I was distracted; the baby kept waking because of unexpected neighborhood noise and violent storms. Yesterday I was rushed; I felt I needed to hurry the salve process so I could just tend to Sabrina. Yesterday I was annoyed; why couldn't the storms just cease? Yesterday, in my hurried, uncaffeinated, sleepy state of mind, I measured wrong. (Yes, my herbalist friends and maker friends reading this know exactly how I feel.. OH, NO). After curing time the next morning, the salve did not set right. I had just wasted months worth of hard work because I MEASURED WRONG. I was staring at a sloopy mess in my tin jars and crying frustrated tears. As I was feeling sorry for myself in the middle of cleaning the breakfast dishes, I dropped some food remnants under the table. Sighing a little too loud, I begrudgingly bent down to pick them up and complain some more, but I stood up too fast and WHACK! I smacked my head on the underside of the table, and wowzers did that ever hurt! I slumped down, crying, and my toddler runs over to me:
"Mama! Are you OK? You hurt your head? Here, let me kiss it!"
And that, my dear readers, is my lesson. No salve is worth crying over; no missed chore is worth worrying about. A simple, healing kiss for the "boo boo" is worth 100 times more than anything else in the world because a caring and compassionate being is worth more than any material possession you could ever own.
And then, I cried some more. When he is grown, Sebastian will probably never remember that moment or understand the utter irony of it all, but oh my, these little beings sure do teach us about life.
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