Early Monday Morning

She brushed the hair out of her face and slowed down just enough to smile. Sure it had made her late, but the moment she had shared with him earlier that morning still made her knees a little weak, and made the prospect of another day at this pointless governmental job easier to accept. It had been a while since they had stolen a moment like that - like teenage newlyweds again. Normally, the whirlwind of activity that filled their lives began at sunup and continued well after sundown, getting the kids packed up and getting them to school, picking up after them, refereeing their fights, helping them with homework. However, summer had arrived, and with it sleep away camp had provided some much needed time and relief.

No one had ever told her that her life would be like this. She loved her life and she adored her children, but she just thought it would be different. She had different hopes and dreams as an adolescent. At some point, she had let them go rushing past her face to embrace the life that she now had. Sometimes the loss hit her straight in the face and she spent a moment questioning her entire life and the direction of it. Dreaming of what her life would have been like if maybe things were just a little different. Maybe if she had not had children. Maybe if she had risked a little more. Maybe if she had pursued that opportunity. It was supposed to have turned out differently. But when he held her in his arms this morning, as they both struggled to catch their breath and she rested her head on his chest, hearing his heartbeat, she could not imagine her life to be any other way. In that moment it was clear that this was exactly where she was supposed to be. In that moment, all the little voices of question and doubt were silenced and all she could think of was how perfect this moment was.

She quickened her pace again to catch the door that was being held open for her, plunging herself into another day of mindless activity, but at least now she had something else more fun to let her mind explore, their upcoming evening together.