Life is Like a Cookie

We come into this world a bright little baby....the apple of our parent's eyes. Through their tender care we grow into an adult....ready to take on the world. We find that life is a circle, when we become parents ourselves. We look into the mirror and see someone who has been trusted with a little being to take care of. We find joy in our lives and fun...and take on this job with so much love. They grow into teens and we have to let go. It is the hardest thing that we have done, so far, in our lives. We hope that they will have good lives and be able to handle any problems that might come their way.Sometimes they might stumble and we find that we really need help to figure this one out. When we finally come to the realization that we aren't the one to do this...we rely on God. Maybe this is the first time that we put our lives in His hands trusting that He will find a way.

Soon, we find that we have aging parents, who need our help. This is when we find that life is like a cookie. Our kids are the one layer and aging parents the other...we are the middle....just hanging on trying to hold everything together. Slowly we see our parents fail and we are called on to have super human power to keep the cookie together. Our kids need us and so do our parents. We start to feel anxious...how can we do it all? Who do we help first? I'm so tired....I need someone to help me...we might think. We take a look in the mirror and see someone who is frazzled and not really able to give our best anymore. That's when we turn to God and ask for his help in this situation Life goes on and our parents pass away and part of the cookie is gone. There we are.... living on as best we can. We find joy again and life gets easier. We get busy with grandchildren and find that our lives are easier and fun again. Their parents are handling all the problems that come with raising a child...and we are just there to enjoy. 

Then comes a day when we look in the mirror and see someone we don't recognize. Who is she? How did she get so old? We start the day off by doing something we have never done before. We read the obituary page.. in the paper. Our friends and loved ones are dying. We have to learn to accept that this is part of life. We take the good with the bad. The hardest thing is to see our partner failing. Visits to the doctor, hospital become the norm. We may care for our partner at home or hospital.....we start to get that feeling again. It even affects our breathing. We find that life is wearing us out. How much more can we possibly take? We want to be there for every step of his care, but find ourselves so tired. This is when we take a look in that mirror and realize that we can't do it all. We need to rely on a higher power to help. After that realization...things get better.We can relax and give better care. We learn to accept help from family and friends.If things don't work out the way we want... and we find then that he is gone....we find ourselves, the center of the cookie, looking in that mirror again and asking for God's help to take care of our loved one and  to get us through the rest of our days.  

This post wasn't meant to be depressing. We all go through these stages in our lives...though not always the  exact same circumstances. It is just here to show that our lives are all pretty much the same. We women have the same guilts...the same feelings that we can be there for everything and everyone. We can wear ourselves out just trying to do......We have super human powers for just so long. There comes a time when we have to stop...and put it in God's hands.

Balisha