Just 30 Minutes

It has been one long week, my friends. I haven't had a meal with my family all week. I thought I might get one tonight, but then I remembered that apparently I am the only one in the family who knows the super-top-secret location of the pet store. Ahem. And the dog, well, she needs to eat and I fear that if I left her without a regular meal, I would wake up to her feasting on my toes. So when three of my family members were sitting down to dinner, I hied off to the pet store to get the dumb dog some food. I am so tired that I just couldn't face the idea of sitting down for a few minutes and then having to get right back up again to buy dog food.

After I got back, I discovered that my three offspring had dined and dashed and left me with the utter destruction left behind after they hoovered their food. As I cleaned up the mess, I supervised homework for Mary, sifted through the papers from Maggie's Parent Night last night, filled in some forms for Sean, ran a load of laundry, and longingly eyed the wine bottle wishing for just 30 minutes to call my own.

After the week I've had, I decided that life would not come to a grinding halt if I actually took those thirty minutes. So I grabbed a glass of wine, a book, a candle, and my camera and hot-footed it to the patio to hide relax before Patrick and James came home from football practice.

I didn't actually ever open my book. I just sat and drank in the green. I checked on my forlorn and neglected but still growing garden. I watched the goldfinches cluster around the feeder. I enjoyed the hummingbirds that darted around the flowers along our patio. I admired the gold-tinged green leaves of the willow tree. I reflected on the last several days and offered up prayers of grief and thanksgiving and praise and supplication.

And then my husband broke the spell by asking if I would come in and serve he and James supper. I'm pretty sure that if he hadn't been protected by the door, the glare that I shot at him would have knocked him flat.

It's been a long week. I am tired. I feel overextended. I am sad. I wish it were still summer. But I am grateful for 30 minutes' peace and will be trying to grab 30 more very soon. Do you suppose they would mind if I brought my wine and candle to school?