11.08.2008

It felt like a chain around my neck, but it wasn't


There are many, many things that are dear to me, but one of the dearest is a reader.

A dear reader contacted me with this finding, a sterling silver "breakfast cereal necklace." Yes, that very breakfast cereal that is so dear to us mothers, dear because it infiltrates and overtakes our lives and carpets and tabletops and carseats, ground into dust on floorboards, sofas, strollers, and high chairs, hidden in tiny fists and under tongues, carried in ziplocks, diaper bags and purses, never ever to be without until the day they disappear for good.

They disappear. You can try to cast them in silver and string them around your neck, but they disappear, and that's what makes them precious, our Cheerio days. They disappear.

This is a road that is neither solid nor silver, and all the more priceless for leaving no trace.

Thank you, dear reader.

14 comments:

Jeannie said...

*blush* The thanks are to you for sharing your "Os"(ups and downs) for the rest of us to enjoy with you.

Motherhood loves company, if possible, even more then misery, and though we've never met, you've given me, and us all, that.

Mrs. B. Roth said...

So appropriate.

Here, in the midst of my Cheerio days (one at a time for years, I hope), it's always so nice to be reminded to stop complaining and enjoy this silly crazy messy time.

Always thanks for reminding me!

Kristin H. said...

I love it.

Cat said...

and sometime they disappear much too fast.

Jena Strong said...

I'll keep seeing you in dreams. And I hope, someday, in person.

Jeannie said...

You know.. I was thinking about this last night and i think that the cheerio's don't really disappear, they just change. They change into soccer or basketballs, they change into the wheels on our first car, and then they change into that little "O" that goes on the fourth finger of our left hand, until we are ready to start the process over again. I think the trick, is enjoying the m"O"ment we are in, and be thankful to have ever been here at all.

Jena Strong said...

p.s. Shortly after leaving my first comment, I remembered my dream last night - I was recommending Momma Zen to a couple of women with new babies. I told them about - and said that this was the only book having anything to do with being a mama (and so much more) they should read. Then I wondered, in the dream, whether I could afford to buy them copies myself. It is official, Karen: Your book is lovingly embedded in my subconscious.

xo

Karen Maezen Miller said...

Jena,
In my dream you can afford them.
xo. In my dream, no one can afford not to have them.

Shelli said...

:-)

Kathryn said...

I love these Cheerio days. Even when I have to vacuum the rug over and over.

Kathleen said...

Jeannie put the O's in context beautifully. As the job interviews increase and graduation day looms ever closer, I will remember this post as my daughter throws her cap (an O inside a square!) into the air. I miss those Cheerio days so!

Bonnie said...

today is my dgtr's 4th birthday.... what a wonderful reminder of how fast this time goes and to stop and smell and listen to each moment.
i am wiping my tears now,
thank you :)

Mama Zen said...

Hanging on to the Cheerios for dear life!

Shalet said...

The Cheerios may come and go but the love stays forever.