Invisible Mother

My step mom sent this to me and I loved it so I thought I'd share!
I can't believe my Kaymie is 1 MONTH old today, wow how time flies! I sure love having a baby girl in the house and she brings such a sweet spirit.

THE INVISIBLE MOTHER

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of
response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room
while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store.
Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously
not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the
floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one
can see me at all.

I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of
hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open
this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human
being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer,
'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm car to order, 'Right around
5:30, please.'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and
the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum
laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never
to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the
return of a friend from England ... Janice had just gotten back from a
fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed
in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together
so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was
feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully
wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the
great cathedrals of Europe .

I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her
inscription: 'To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what
you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I
would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths,
after which I could pattern my work:
No one can say who built the great cathedrals we have no record
of their names.
These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would
never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.
The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the
eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to
visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw
a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was
puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving
that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will
ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'


I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It
was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you,
Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you
does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake
you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are
building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will
become.'

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction But it is not
a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease
of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn
pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As
one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see
finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals
could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people
willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my child to tell the
friend he's bringing home from college for
Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes
homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and
presses all the linens for the table.'



That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I
just want him to want to come home. And then, if
there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're
gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen
if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the
world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that
has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.