4 kids into my marriage,

i love my man more than ever.

still, there is often a child yelling louder, crying more intensely,

running faster with scissors or pouting with more drama than d or i.

they take priority in the moment

and the ‘how’s it going?’ and ‘boy, i sure do like you’

stuff between us doesn’t get said as much as it used to.

then this great thing happened.

my phone broke.

yup, you read that right, my phone broke.

so d took it to work (as the service shop is near there)

and left his phone here with me.

partway through the day his phone starts ringing.

actually it starts singing this bluesy little jazz tune.

when i dance over and say ‘hello’ it’s d calling from the shop

where they are testing my phone out to see if  the problem is licked.

i say to him, “great ringtone”

he says to me, “i picked it just for you”

bewildered, i say, “what do you mean ‘just for me’?”

he replies, ” i heard it and really, really liked it and thought

‘t is the only one special enough for this’. so i gave everybody else a different ring.”

it’s amazing, really, how quickly the frustration of my broken phone

gave way to that toasty warm ‘i am so very loved’ feeling

that started in my chest and radiated out until my littlest toes

and both my pinky fingers were tingling. perhaps even glowing a bit, too.

next time something around here breaks

and with 4 kids, something will before too long

i think i’ll try to be more grateful and just wait for

the silver lining to show up.

‘breaks’ taken from 17:14 in proverbs.