I put flowers in a little vase and set it on the table. I went to the other room for two minutes, came back, and found the flowers IN the bottle vase, and the stems and water all over the table. And I took a picture.

It was a mess. BUT... a beautiful mess. The petals were still vibrant, stems were beside them and the water had spilled just so.

It is so indicative of our lives in this little stage: that beautiful, messy chaos.. Paints on the table, keys are who-knows-where (quite possibly in the garbage, shout-out to Maggie), the crayons all over the floor... oops, forgot to grab a gift for the birthday party, and forgot to put that dinner plan in the calendar... total chaos.

Sometimes, when the girls are sleeping, I clean a whole room and then I very deliberately "style" a surface to perfect prettiness. I say to myself, "I think that's beautiful," and wish it could stay like that for awhile... but it doesn't.

When I saw that mess, it struck me as so beautiful... It would need to be corrected, of course. I couldn't leave the water sitting and the petals inside that vase, but it was a beautiful moment. And I needed to recognize the beauty.

This chaotic mess we call life around here- that far from immaculately organized home we share, that calendar with all its accidental gaps, those belated birthday gifts... that mess of life is beautiful. It will all be sorted, and our kids will correct their own messes and head off to school and grow up.

I will not feel so scattered that day, and all my surfaces may look perfectly styled and pretty like they do for those nap times... but I know- I just know- that I will look back to this day and say,

"wow, what a beautiful moment of life THAT was."

So I'll be relishing in the chaos of today...

...and believe me... there IS chaos today. :)

xoxo