As the first semester quarter is winding down my mind is opening up to remember people in my life who get crowded out otherwise. A DCE mom asked if I’d like to come out on a Saturday and help them make prayer cards. I’m finally now getting back to her. We did make a plan to meet again for coffee, a monthly habit we have been trying to form.

Meanwhile, I ran into another pastor’s wife while visiting churches. We used to get together more. Once I stopped homeschooling the boys, I slowly faded away from the homeschooling group we had also tried to form and kept up for a few years. Truthfully I’d faded from it long before that, though I tried to be loyal despite my parched thirst for friendships that deeper suited my needs.

“I just don’t have time for friends”, she said, exasperated by this life that can become so full with good things, your own set of hardships, and the day-to-day tasks of survival as livelihood. I know the story and don’t in any way fault her for it. She’s always looking at me with glistening eyes, in wonder of how I am so far ahead of her in the parenting journey.

And then there was another I caught up with on the phone while out for a walk. It’s always good to catch up. She doesn’t have the same absence of peers or families more of her age. Their church is booming with fellow mothers and classical homeschooling families. She’s not homeschooling anymore though, and I don’t fault her for that either. She too has surpassed me in immediate busyness.

What do I admire now? I thought it was people raising families or women who could keep their house from falling apart. And then it was those who did not lose their joy, who maintained Christian hope in spite of trials. A teacher emailed yesterday, begging forgiveness for falling asleep in church. Is it wrong to say that each is truly perfect as they are?