My Pink Perspective.

This is not to be confused with a 'Rosy Perspective'.  Those of you who know me understand my perspective is far from Rosy....as remote a prospect in my life as a Saharan Oasis.  Positivity just isn't in me.  No, this story involves stinking clothes a washing machine and a spot of nostalgia. 

On Tuesday I was doing the laundry.  In my house this is no minor task.  Practically every other day I sit there on my kitchen floor with piles of filthy, smelly clothing all around me and contemplate how wonderful it would be to have a maid.  I'm sure i'm not alone in this thought, considering how much easier life would be if someone could come and help with the daily monotonous chores.  I would easily sacrifice electricity, modern plumbing and the female vote for the prospect of rewinding time and returning to a day of Nannies and slave labour.  Anyway this particular morning I decided to put in a pink load.  Not colours, not darks, not whites, but pinks.  This is a load peculiar to those of us who have girls and more specifically to those who have more than one daughter.  I digress.  As I was loading the machine and bewailing my miserable lot in life.....work, clean, cook, referee the boys, work a little more, clean a little more, iron, wash, work again, clean...blah blah blah, I remembered a distinct moment in my previous life.  Just after Charlotte was born, when I put in a 'pink' load....pink babygrows, pink dresses, pink knickers, pink booties, pink blankets....and how I cried, yes sobbed, because finally I had my girl.

Yet just a few years later that same pink load was causing me grief and resentment.

And it occured to me that life isn't the thing that has changed....it is me, or rather my outlook.  What I once saw as a privelidge and a blessing has gradually become a burden and a chore.  It's still the same pink clothes entering that machine, only now I have begun to take for granted these little females I so longed for and thus forget to stop and see the wonder and joy of them being here.

So to go a bit Jerry-Springer-like, I had one of those Epiphanic moments, realising that the main issue with mine, yours and probably many people's lives is we lack the perspective we used to own, when the brighter times were here.  I've said it before (as did Ronan) and I'll say it again, life is a roller coaster...the carriage doesn't change, the harness stays in place and the tracks are solid but the view is forever altering.  Sometimes I feel I shall be glad simply to get to the end and remain still for a while, but in the meantime I really have got to learn to enjoy the ride.