Strength, Courage, Confidence

"We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot." -Eleanor Roosevelt

This is parenting.  I was just thinking about this quote this morning, as I hauled myself out of bed an hour before the sun does the same.  Every day I wake up tired, despairing that I will ever have enough energy to do everything I need to do, and yet by the end of the day, I seem to have checked most everything off my list.  I spend all day doing the things which I think I cannot do.

Today I will take Maeve to a park that's 20 minutes from my house, so that I can do a review of it for another blog.  I will put away the laundry, take out the trash, thaw the chicken for dinner, and attend to all the sundry needs of my two year old, with as much kindness and patience as I can muster.  I will make three meals, I will make my shopping list, and I will pick up the tiny bits of food that seem to carpet my universe.  I will probably sleep when she takes her nap.

Every day I expend more energy than I would have told you I had inside me, and I do it all on one cup of coffee, plus the sheer adrenaline of making sure my child harms neither herself nor her clothes, nor my treasured possessions.  And in living every day, I gain strength, confidence, and courage, just like Mrs. Roosevelt said.