Two hands.

One day when my son was in preschool, I noticed he was playing with one child, but not another of his close playmates. When I asked him about it, he responded "Mama, I only have 2 hands."

Those words have remained in my mind all this time.  Now I know why.  Now I finally understand what he meant.

People who you love and care for need care and concentration.  Loving is a kind of concentrating.

When I was breastfeeding, I was constantly astonished at how consuming it was sitting on the couch in front of Law and Order nursing an infant.  I didn't expect it, but it really demanded a lot of concentration.  I was so busy, I forgot that the reason I was busy was that I was concentrating on attending to the needs of another person, deeply connected to me.

The breastfeeding relationship is long over, but not the tending.

The little ways we nurture the little people in our lives. The noticing, the re-framing, the encouraging, the timing it all takes time. On top of that, I am all too often multitasking other non-parenting tasks.

I only have 2 hands.  They are enough, but I need to keep them free for who I care for.