Here comes the sun....

I love going to the hairdressers...and not just for the very obvious aesthetic benefits. I've been going to the same salon for years and years- apart from a couple of meaningless dalliances  with seductive Living Social deals- but I always end up coming back. There's something very comforting about knowing the faces, them knowing yours, picking up that conversation from last time, hearing all the juicies and getting a cuppa made just the way you like it. They know me so well now, that when I arrived a few months ago with a bright green portapotty stashed in my handbag, they didn't even blink. Even when a disastrously timed, mid hair wash, code brown alert left me no choice but to slamdunk my boy onto the potty, loo door open so  he could observe my hair rinsing process, they took it all their stride.

Yesterday morning, as I waited for my appointment, there was an older lady there who commented on the  beautiful day . In fact, she confided, she didn't know why she'd put on her cardigan at all- she certainly didn't need it on a day like that- it must be just habit. She said that she'd had loads of plans for today but now she wasn't doing any of it -she'd just then decided to bring a kitchen chair into the garden and have a lazy day there instead. I nodded and  wistfully assured her that she was just right while secretly thinking how lucky she was to have the freedom to do it.

She went on to tell me how years ago, on another beautiful day just like this one, she was outside scrubbing her front windows,  her now forty five year old son a baby in the pram beside her, when a local nurse walked past and told her the housework would wait and she should take the baby to the park on a day like that instead- sure wasn't it to rain tomorrow! And she nodded and smiled and agreed, but went on cleaning, because didn't they need done, and anyway she couldn't be running off to the park in the middle of the day on a whim! As the years passed though, she'd remembered that nurse's wisdom and slowly began to see not just a good drying day, but a chance to feel the sun on her face.

A few days ago, my littlest boy looked up at me, a wee face covered in spots and asked 'Mummy, why don't you and me just chillax today? And did I listen to him and do just that? Of course I didn't- I'd two boys with chicken pox to look after, washes to hang out on the line, meals to make, a table to paint, school runs to do, hairs to cut, phonecalls to make..the list goes on ....and I'm afraid there's no easy answers or ends in sight. Yes, it's a hectic season I'm in right now, but I know that only I can slow it down,  and carve out precious pockets of peace amidst the madness of the daily grind. Because here's the kicker-if I don't, it won't be long till my children will be grown and I'll look back longing and wishing I'd chillaxed with my boy when he'd asked me, or sat outside in the garden with the sun warming my face.