I'm invisible

I recieved the following as an email from a friend this week. I found such comfort in it that I've decided to post it hoping that it may be of comfort to you as well. It is written to the younger mother but those of us who are empty nesters probably can relate more than the younger mother. You know, if there is nothing else to be gained from growing older, we do gain perspective.

Invisible Mother.....

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?"

Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only apair of hands, nothing more! Can you open this? Can you fix this? Can you tie this?

Some days I'm not a pair of hands: I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it?" I'm a saltellite guide to answer "What number is the Disney Channel on? I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please."

Some days I'm a crystal ball: "Where's my other sock? Where's my phone? What's for dinner?"

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history, music and literature - but now, they had disappered into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!

One night a group of us was having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. She had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when she turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this." It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she had given it to me until I read her inscription: "With admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four like-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: 1) No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. 2) These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. 3) They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. 4) The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof. No one will ever see it." And the workman replied, "Because God sees."

I closed the book feeling the missing pieces fall into place. It was almost as if I could hear God whispering to me, " I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, when no one around you does."

No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you baked, no Cub Scout meeting, no last minute errand is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bring home from college for Thanksgiving, "My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for 3 hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would be a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, he'd say, "You're gonna love it there......"

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.

God Bless!