Once in a while, as I’m chopping potatoes and onions for a vegetarian dinner, my mind wanders.
I’m quite sure it’s the potatoes. Potatoes are the same cut a thousand times over….
My mind decides to go somewhere else. Often, it’s 90 Wednesdays away. Maybe for you, it’s far in the future unknowns or past regrets. Maybe my train of thought sounds as irrational as yours when it becomes very smart about things that are not yet.
Seriously, what am I going to do? He has a car, I won’t even be driving him to college. I won’t say goodbye, I’ll say “see you soon!”. No. I’m NOT going to be in denial. I’m going to just tell him, “You’ve got this” and walk away so he can run after me to hug me. OMG. No I won’t. I can’t manipulate that. I’ll just know when it’s time. My mother was so lucky, she just put me on the bus to the airport.
His future melds with my past – as it always does when I can’t sort myself and I have too much time slicing potatoes.
Slice.
Slice.
Three more slices and I realize potatoes are God’s gift to me.
They bring me back to reality.
One slice at a time. Just One Thing at a time.
For now it’s potatoes. Every slice adding to the layer of potatoes for the casserole. One slice matters.
The One Thing matters. Then the Next Thing matters.
Then putting them together in the pot with onions. Then finishing the rest of the dish. Then doing dishes and if he wants to tell me about the girl he may or may not like, or date, or not date. If he doesn’t, then the Next Thing will be mail, and bills, and feeding the dog.
Because Just One Thing will lead me to all the answers I need in the next 90 Wednesdays. It will ground me, keep me present, and transform me.
One slice at a time.
Vikki Spencer, The Mom Whisperer, Mom Coach
This post is part of a series of posts about counting down the Wednesdays until my son goes away to college. We started at 115, and you can find the first one – here.