Sometimes I just write something and post it on this blog (and you can probably tell by the misspelling and grammatical errors - sometimes I catch them after they are posted for awhile), but other times I sit with a post for awhile writing and rewriting. This photo was one of those times I've come up with many ideas and thrown them all down. There are so many things I love about this photo - the brother love, Jo helping with the family work, the fact that I'm okay posting a photo with a bottle in it (I wouldn't have done that until recently.) And so here are three different drafts of a caption for this one moment...
1) I've been reading more lately (see articals below) on the movement of turning the home into a unit of production instead of a unit of consumption. This resounds with our desire to value work, care for creation, resist consumer culture (that devalues people and overvalues acquisition) and learning to serve one another. I love the idea of family work. I'm certainly not staying home to clean, but instead am interested in creating a asthetic, creative, ethical, productive and loving space where we can seek justice and reach out. This is a tall order, but much more worthy of my time than cleaning the bathtub; though that does need doing too and is part of this larger vision...
2) "I always want to help you Mum!" isn't always the chorus around here, but these words do come and sometimes I see my little man wanting to help, to serve and to add his hand to the family work. He often asks to help Rowan and now takes his plate up after dinner and tidies the living room after dinner. Being a family helper really is becoming more ordinary of late, but will always be extraordinary.
3) Jonah loves giving Rowan a bottle to 'help' out and I find it so sweet. I actually think it is helping me accept the bottles more (not to mention we have glass bottles this time - so much nicer and they stay so shiny.) My struggles with breast feeding have been such a major part of my mothering journey and the bottle has always symbolized that hard and 'imperfect' piece of my mothering. But, it is lessening. I think I've finally convinced myself that the 'best' I can do is good enough (at least in this one way.) This photo has been a reminder of gratitude in the past week for two healthy boys, for their budding friendship, and for my wee boy's food.
1 comment:
Amen, Emily, Amen! You said so much of what I ponder and preach in my home. I posted once about the "work" of childhood, and I like to extend those thoughts to the work of the family.
Your comments about the bottle also hit close to my heart. I understand. I do.
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