Little Slivers of Me

An old friend of mine who is blessed with two beautiful children of her own, is a gifted writer and writes from her heart.  She said it perfectly when she explained what having small children does to a person. After reading her blog over & over, I realized that what she put into words is exactly how I feel about the "little slivers left of me."
Because my children can not do anything without me and are totally dependent upon us, I am split. In terms of what constitutes "me", I must divide myself into thirds. One third of "me" automatically goes to each of my children, for the simple fact that they are not self sufficient. They must have a piece of me, whether I want them to, like it, feel sick, am busy or want to do something else. It doesn't matter, they own me. With the last third of "me" I must nurture my marriage. With so much of [both my husband] and I owned by our children, we must work even harder to stay connected. After the third of what's left of us is shared with one another, we have to go to work, go to school, take care of our house, our bills, our dog, our yard, our responsibilities. Then, we support our family and nurture those familial bonds. And then, we have our friends. Friends are incredibly important to both of us, yet in the grand scheme of life and the little slivers of what is left of us, we do what we can. It's hard. It's an incredibly difficult balance to do it all and to be all things to all people. Little slivers, that's all that's left when the day is done. Right or wrong, good or bad, it is what it is. In the long run, I hope that once my children become more self-sufficient I will get a little more of myself back. My children will always "own" pieces of me, but these years won't last forever. And, in the meantime, I'm relishing these days with my children. It just goes by way too fast."

Thanks Jen for your words...