Eye of the Storm

So if you are a mom you can relate. The eye of the storm is the proverbial bubble you retreat to when the chaos of family and home surround you. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a bubble, and not every bubble is the same.

If you are a new mom, and have one or two children your bubble may be less dense than a mother of say five or six, or even ten. I myself have six children, so my bubble is as dense as fruit cake. I am fortunate enough to be able to sit at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a mask of serenity plastered on my face while my children bicker, fight, yell, cry, beg, plead, bang, break, crash, mope, tattle and generally live their exciting little lives around me.

My mother isn't quite as lucky. You see over time the bubble weakens and dissipates. Like Nanny McPhee it is only there while you need it, and leaves when you don't. Poor mom! She's coming to visit us for May long weekend and all I can do is hope her bubble replenishes itself prior to the children getting over the initial good behavior that occurs when Gramma first gets here. If things go well, and timing cooperates, the bubble will be back in full force in time for dinner. Fingers crossed!

As lucky as I am to have my bubble, I am equally lucky to have a friend who also has six children and an impenetrable bubble. I can't imagine what it must look like to an outsider. When our families get together there are twelve little people of all ages creating all sorts of mischief, and my girlfriend and I sit quietly chatting and sipping our green tea lemonade in the midst of it all. We don't respond to every cry and argument, rather we sit and ignore most of the madness until we hear that one cry that is different from all the rest. Not the hungry cry, or the angry cry, or the jealous cry. No. The hurt cry. The one that permeates the bubble and lets mom know there's probably blood drawn or bone broken. That's when you'll meet "WONDERMOM".

Average coffee sipping mom by day, and WONDERMOM when danger calls. Wondermom is faster than a speeding bullet, and can MacGyver a bandage out of nearly anything on hand. Unwavering, unthinking and as close to calm as can be managed, Wondermom can stop the screaming and crying as she pulls her hurting child into her bubble and makes everything better. My mom can still do that for me, even a province away. Maybe the bubble doesn't weaken, or dissipate. Maybe, just maybe it stays with you and simply alters and reacts as it's needed. Oh boy I hope so.