Was it Shakespeare who penned, “April is the cruelest month.”? If so, the man was a prophet – at least in regard to April 2009 at Camp Crary! All three of the little campers were down with viral flu, which can last, of course, a MONTH. Around camp the sound of nebulizers humming in the background had become our new Camp song, complete with masks and white smoke for a rockin’ effect! Not to mention steroids, which seemed to elevate the frentic energy of the guys to new heights. And when well-meaning folks asked me what we did over Spring Break, I hesitated to answer. Who really wants to hear about fever up to 104 degrees – not the sun on a lovely island – no, that would have been my children’s body temperatures!!
Actually, between work at the church, drug store runs, laundry, cooking, occasionally talking to my husband in passing, time to think beyond the next minute has been a luxury lately. And writing? Well, let’s just say I already owed V.B. a blog last month, and it never happened. Honestly, I have felt sort-of-half-human – who am I? In the midst of trying to pull off a “Director of Communications” role in my job (one day I will be found out!), concerned mother who sits wearily through another doctor’s appointment really thinking about that fact that if I can just get through the screaming during the throat culture, I can go through Starbuck’s drive-thru and get a latte, occasional volunteer at my older boys’ elementary school where I constantly feel like I need to go back to elementary school, and being the parent who is only able to show up on Fridays to pick up her youngest son from an Early Invention school in Atlanta, I have to ask myself, where has the feeling gone? The feeling I remember embracing with unbridled enthusiasm: “I am Mother, Hear Me Roar!”
As May graces us with its sunny disposition, I am relieved to report the peewee campers have returned to their usual routines and are enjoying soccer games and school with friends. And I am praying to gain new inspiration as we approach Mother’s Day. Maybe I will be reminded of the rites of rebirth and renewal Spring brings, and that as a mother I have not lost my way entirely though my “roar” is a little weaker. Maybe I have just been waiting for the chance to become strong again – pushing my way up through all the dirt and announcing myself with the rising sun like the first May flowers.
J.E. Crary -mother of 3 boys
