Five Minute Friday: Willing

I am late, late, late!  Late to be sitting down at the computer because I got to sleep in and swim at 9:15am instead of 5:00am.  What a treat!  And you know what floated through my brain around lap 9?  Five Minute Friday!  Today is FRIDAY!  I wonder what the prompt will be?  I wonder if posting at an unusual time will introduce me to some new bloggers - introduce me to a message I am supposed to hear.  Give me the opportunity to share my story with someone new?  Wow! 

And then I realize I needed to concentrate on my breath or sputter and drown!  But how wonderful that this new habit is one I look so forward to that it can overtake a precious moment like my morning swim.

Anyway, today's prompt is "Willing" - which leads me right back to mom.  One of the sayings she still remembers and still uses is "If the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise."  How that is woven through my entire life...

Willing:

What am I willing to do?  What a loaded question!  What does that even mean?  And why is so easy to say no to someone else's life choices because they are difficult, but a non-issue when it is your life?

Many of my friends tell me they could "never do what I'm doing"...meaning they would not be able to change their lives to care for their parents.  I think they say that because they don't think that it will ever be an issue.  I believe when we are needed - we will all be willing.

Maybe that's just the slice of humanity that I spend my time with, but I can't imagine any of them not stepping up, stepping in, doing what's right - no matter how difficult.

Today I found a mess in mom's bathroom.  Did I sigh?  Yes!  Did a mutter a couple of choice un-Christian sentences?  You betcha!  And then I got to work and tidied up.  I was willing because it needed to be done.

Mom wanted to know if it was cold outside today - for a solid hour she wanted to know.  Does it matter?  Nope!  Could I have ignored her question?  Yes.  But when your world has gotten so small and scary and confusing that the weather is the safest subject - weather, days of the week, meals and the names of celebrities are our top 4 right now!  The least I can do as her caregiver and daughter is to answer.  To be willing to answer EVERY TIME with enthusiasm, truth, sincerity, patience and kindness...knowing all the while she will not be able to process my answer or store it anywhere in her mind.   To be willing to get up and open the door and let her feel the cool breeze and smile while she shivers and "remembers" what cold is and to do it as many times as it takes.

She's my mom and I, for today at least, am her willing daughter.


This post is part of Lisa Jo Baker’s Five Minute Friday, in response to the prompt “choose” I wrote for 5 minutes and published without editing, in 5 minute Friday tradition.