“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark burn out in a brilliant blaze than it be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.” – Jack London

Yup, I’m busy. That’s a good thing.

Years ago, when my children were little, going to the grocery store was always an adventure. At one point, my husband and I had five children under five years old, so you can easily imagine the chaos that a trip to the store might bring.

Picture this: a young mom wearing a newborn in a frontpack, with four babies and toddlers perched in and around the groceries in the cart. I always pushed the cart up the very center of the aisle, because veering to either side was courting disaster (“Put that back! I don’t need six cans of olives today…”)  It was kind of like pushing a hungry, easily distracted, hyperactive octopus through the store.

Anyway. I remember one specific day as we finished up our shopping and I stepped wearily into the checkout line, a very nice older woman offered to give me a hand getting the groceries onto the counter. “You sure have your hands full,” she remarked. I thought, Oh, you think?! — but before I could voice my sarcastic impulse, she went on to say with a wistful note in her voice, “Thank God they’re not empty.”

Edit: Fixed a mangled sentence.