Impatience

Are You My Mother? By P.D. Eastman was in the library and better yet it was in Spanish, Eres tu mi Mama? I snapped it up and was looking forward to reading it to both Emma and Nathaniel. I remembered reading it to the earlier brood and the middle kiddos too. Each had loved it.

All were fascinated as the little bird searches for his mother, asking a kitten, a cow and enventually a SNORT if they were his mother. Emma and Nathaniel were each curled up on either side of me leaning in towards the pages as we read about how the little bird was looking for his mummy, and actually passes her while she is pulling a humungous worm out of the ground for his breakfast.

Nathaniel smiled at the silliness of the baby bird asking a plane as it flew overhead and calling down to a boat as it drifted by if they were his mother. But tender hearted Emma grew more and more concerned that he was alone and could not find his mummy. She shifted anxiously beside me and tried to turn the pages ahead of the words we had read. She was impatient to learn what was going to happen. She put her hand over mine and pulled on it and finally when the Snort lifts the wee baby bird into the air she gasped and struggled to turn the page before I had finished reading it. She burst into tears, desperate to know what would happen.

The second time we read it, she enjoyed it more. She was relaxed and no longered strained to turn the pages, even playing with me as we made the noises of the animals the little bird encounters in his search for his mummy.

However, over the past few weeks I have discovered that no matter how exciting the story or even if it is a somewhat mundane book that I am reading to Emma, if it is new to her she chafes at the bit to turn the page and take a peek at what is coming next. She wants to know what lies ahead. She is impatient. No matter what the story line is she just cannot relax and enjoy the book until she knows all. And it struck me the other night, that I am just like her.

I, too, am very impatient to know just what the future has in store. I am always trying to see around to the other side of the page.

Like Emma I need to learn to be patient, relax and enjoy life while allowing God to unfold the mystery of what the future holds for me. All in His good time.