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It's about relationships.  That's what we keep hearing, isn't it?  I totally agree, it is certainly about relationships.  What we don't always hear about are the things we have to put aside in order to make sure relationships get the time and attention they need to be nurtured.

I'm sure there are some folks who come by this naturally, but I'm not one of them.  I was always one of those who repeatedly told the child who was asking to play a board game - "Not right now.  I have to ______" (fill in the blank - and it was usually something to do with cleaning or maintaining our household).  I'm not now, but as fate often has it, my kids all are pretty much grown up now.  All but one are actually adults.  The one teen still left at home keeps me on my toes with her insistence that we keep our relationship first.  I'm not as good at it as either of us would like, but I'm certainly better than I ever was with her older siblings. In part, that's because I am selfish and don't want to live with the guilt it induces when I realize at the end of the day that I put off doing a simple thing that would nourish a relationship in order to attempt to complete or at the very least start some project.

Feeling guilty about mistakes that I have learned not to make is not on my bucket list.  I'm sure it's not on anyone's, but now I know there is something I can do about it.  I can stop whatever thing I'm working on or towards and pay attention to the person right in front of me.  It might be complete attention to listen to a story, or a hurt, or watch a funny SnapChat.  Maybe it's to listen to the list of things they're requesting from the grocery next time I go shopping and they know me well enough to know that there's a very good chance that I'm not fully listening to them - experience does teach some things very well - and they want to make sure I hear them.

The list of ways people seek my time and attention (and yours I'm sure) is pretty much endless.  I'm finding it very hard to get anything done around this house.  I'm not really sure I'm okay with that yet, but I'm too tired to worry about it. LOL

People before things; I first heard it in La Leche League referring to our babies' needs versus the work waiting to be done.  It's the idea behind poems like Babies Don't Keep.

  "Dusting and sweeping can wait 'till tomorrow, for babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow.  So go to bed cobwebs, dust to to sleep,  I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep" 

Neither do grown babies.  They're always going to be our babies, no matter how old they get!  So they always come before dusting and sweeping, dishes and laundry.  And many times, so do the people in our lives who aren't even our babies. :-) It's hard letting that be a reality.  We can't always do both, and when it comes time to choose, God help me keep people before things.

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