Onyih and I are kindred spirits. We ‘met’ through an online Christian writer group andit’s like we’ve known each other forever. We share stories, secrets, tears, laughter, prayer and critic each other’s work. She describes herself as a “Pencil in His hands”. She writes stories of grace, mercy and hope atwww.meditationsofthesoul.com
Read a short excerpt of her writing here…..
ONE HEAD, MANY HATS
Ring…Ring…Ring…
Bleary-eyed, I fumbled for my phone and shut the annoying alarm off. It’s 5 a.m. in the morning. Before the alarm went off, my little human alarm had already pulled me halfway out of a somewhat deep sleep and the alarm did the rest. I (very reluctantly) dragged myself up, and started feeding the baby. After feeding and burping him, I set him down and opened my textbook – time to work on my assignments. I mentally flipped through my program for the rest of the day – I thought about the mountain of washed clothes in dire need of folding and skipped past that. No, no time for that today. Too many other things to do. Life sometimes feels like a balancing act – something has to give way for something else. I’m married, I work, go to school and have two kids who need me to take care of them.
A friend of mine visited from Nigeria recently and we used to joke that over here, a wife/mom is not just a wife/mom, but also a cook, driver, housekeeper, washer-woman, nursemaid and so many other things rolled into one. She was glad to see that my housekeeping standards had relaxed a bit – hey, with an active toddler running all over the place, there’s no way it can be spick and span like it used to be BFK (before kids). There are days when I can’t pick up the toys all over the living room floor, or I can’t wash all the dishes in the sink before I go to bed. There are times when I fish their clothes out of the dryer for days because I can’t find 30 minutes to fold/hang them. I fully accept the fact that I’m not SUPERWOMAN, and I’m glad I’m not, but I do try to be a super woman. I try to be a great wife and mother, a good employee, a competent student, a loving sister/daughter, a faithful steward and so on.
As women, many of us wear many hats and even though they may not always sit right – a moment of anger can make your ‘good wife’ hat askew, but a few sweet words and some TLC will make it sit right again – we can take pride in the fact that we manage to juggle so many things pretty well, with no major catastrophes!
Every now and again, I pull out all my hats and admire them; I’m blessed to be a wife, thankful to be a mom, grateful for my job, happy to be back in school, glad that I have a family who loves me. All my hats don’t always fit right, but they’re mine…and I’m proud to have the privilege of wearing them all.
© 2013Onyih Odunze
Unoma Nwankwor 