Purposeful Paper

Hunger rears its familiar head again.

The children beckon in harmony, “Mommy.”

My body screams for time to rest.

The house looks like a bomb went off.

The weeds are bigger than the garden plants.

Life is full of so many distractions.

All vie for my time, my thoughts, my energy.

Of which, there is a limited amount.

Lord, You put us here with all these distractions.

And asked us to focus on You.

But how can we keep our minds on You

In this unending game of tug-of-war?

I want life to be a blank page.

All white and clean so I can fill it with You.

But life is never a tidy sheet of paper.

It is more like a detailed piece of wallpaper.

Full of shapes and hues and shading,

Making the paper both unique and busy.

It is filled with people You love,

And splattered with situations important to You.

Perhaps then I should view life differently:

Every day is a chance to work with what you’ve given me,

Smoothing the wrinkles,

Squaring the corners

Adding more color and warmth wherever I go.

Perhaps then I can quit searching for that blank page,

Stop purging the drawings from my wallpaper,

But embracing those “distractions”

As artwork from Your hand,

Adding beauty and meaning to my corner of the world.

                                                                        Patti McCarthy Broderick

                                                                        August 2003