An Inspiring Poem

I discovered this insightful poem today on one of the piano teaching blogs I read regularly. I think it applies so well to motherhood - as my main role is to be a teacher to my children.

I have come to the frightening conclusion

that I am the decisive element.

It is my personal approach

that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

I possess tremendous power to make

a life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture

or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations, it is my response that decides

whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated,

and a person humanized or de-humanized.

If we treat people as they are,

we make them worse.

If we treat people as they ought to be,

...we help them become what they are capable of

becoming.

-Goethe

For some reason yesterday was a success in a lot of ways in our home - even though you wouldn't think so if you saw me still wearing my PJs with messy hair when Jared came home (Sorry- no pictures on this one:). I spent an hour with Jacob "racing" to see who could fill up their weed bucket first in our garden and now you can actually see the corn that was growing under all of those weeds. Then we spent another hour making a spaghetti dinner together to help him pass off one of his scouting achievements. I enjoyed reading stories with Emily and was somehow able to overlook the kid's messy bedrooms (although for another Scout achievement Jacob and I discovered all of the hazards in our home - like books on the stairs and toothpicks laying around on the carpet). Daniel came to me asking to do his floor mopping chore and Rebecca helped rock the baby to sleep just when I needed a break. Later I headed off to a Relief Society Activity and ended the day with a nice walk with Jared.
But today (so far) has been different (not in a good way). The messes are starting to mess up my mood and I've been seeing things with a "glass half empty" approach. I guess some days are like that - even in Australia. Hopefully after pondering this poem I can make our home life today not miserable- but joyous. So I think I better go take a nap while all is quiet on the home front.