If you’ve interacted with me at all in the past year or two, you know that I don’t have a lot of hope for our world. Well, mostly for our country. That’s a whole post in and of itself (that I actually wrote months ago but haven’t posted yet).
There’s just so much bad, so much danger, so much hatred, and while I’m aware there are amazing, miraculous, love-filled things happening each day, it doesn’t seem to be enough.
But sometimes it’s just one little thing that can give you a boost of hope.
Today I was in Target with my daughter and while we were browsing in the toddler clothing section we saw (well, heard, really) a family of 6 in the same section. They had 4 kids under the age of 10 or so, and they were loud and crazy. The parents were snapping and squabbling at each other and their kids (“I cannot watch them all on my own!” “What the heck is going on?!” “Can’t you help out for once?!” “Guys! Come on, what are you DOING?!”) while the kids ran around crazily. At one point, their youngest, probably around 2 years old, ran over to where we were standing and grabbed a bright pink, orange, and yellow dress with a giant tutu, and brought it back to his family.
“Ugh,” the oldest rolled his eyes. “Why does he always wear girl clothes?”
“Because he likes girl clothes,” the dad answered, “and that’s fine with us.”
“It’s just weird,” the oldest said.
“It makes him happy,” said the mom, “so we don’t care. He can wear whatever he wants.”
“Plus,” the dad added, “with little kids most things are a phase.”
“But if it’s not a phase, we’re fine with that too,” said the mom.
“I KNOW,” said the dad, “I’m just SAYING.”
“I KNOW, but it’s important to CLARIFY!” said the mom. And they began snapping at each other again and yelling at the kids to stop running around like clowns, and I smiled as we walked away.
That, right there. Amidst the chaos, amidst the stress, the exhaustion, the frustration – that was love. That was acceptance. That was HOPE.
