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Pollyanna Had a Point
A Mother Looks Hard to Find the Good in Everything
By Karen Edmisten
that no one is paying us for it. Perhaps we wonder what there is to be glad about.
I thought of this the other night as I was rocking my extremely cranky, extraordinarily tired and somewhat wired (I'll never use that cold medicine again) 2-year-old. There was no choice about what to do with my time that evening – my child needed me, and I was at her disposal. We rocked, we walked, we sat and cuddled. I sang, I cooed, I whispered her name. I stroked her hair and as I, too, became exhausted, I asked myself: "What is there to be glad about?"
Surprisingly, a number of things sprang to mind:
- I was so glad it was just a cold and nothing more serious.
- I was glad for my sweet husband and his much-needed assistance.
- I was glad I didn't have to be anywhere before 11 a.m. the next morning.
- I was glad for that extra cup of coffee I'd had earlier.
- I was glad that – after multiple miscarriages – we had this miracle child at all.
While reflecting on my list of things to be glad about I was finally struck by one more thing: I was glad for the opportunity to simply be with my daughter. Sometimes it takes a cold and a cough and a long, cranky night to force me to slow down and be with my children – to remind me to put the world on hold and sing to them.
It may sound odd to seek "something to be glad about" in illness, but if, like Pollyanna, we can search for a silver lining in all things, surely this is the sunbeam that waits for us in such unavoidable times. We stop, we rest, we merely exist together for a time. Then, when the storm passes, we are glad not only for the chance to have done so, but we're doubly glad that life isn't always like this.
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