Cake Making

Today we were driving and Margo exclaimed "ew!!! It's a mess out there momma!"
It's spring, I told her, it gets messy when the snow melts but pretty soon everything will be green and it will cover the mess up.

"That machine made the mess, didn't it?" she said pointing to a bulldozer waiting to make room for a rumored Costco, and I agreed with her.

"WHY?" she asked, four or five times, to every answer I gave her.

Well... eventually I said because in order to make something good you have to first make a mess and destroy it a little... like that machine making the snow dirty or when we make cake and we have to make the kitchen a mess, destroying things like eggs, before we can make a cake.

Oh lessons.

Husband and I have a LONG trip in the car coming up and I am both excited and dreading it. We could really use the time, just the two of us, to talk about things but if any of you have ever spent 20 hours in the car with a spouse perhaps you can remember some of the... talking... that happened when, say, traffic hit going through Chicago or a storm hit going through the mountains. Still, excited.

Our marriage cake has been making a mess in the kitchen for awhile but as of late we've had some victories in resolving and communicating. It may sound like a derby car trophy, but every fight you stay married, trying your best to treat each other more and more like Christ, is a crown.

I am ever the simple romantic heroine of my own story, easily succumbing to bitterness, selfishness, youth and hurt. Much too simple, a bonafide simpleton, but at least I can outgrow the youth someday. Yet, on the other side of the oven I can patiently observe this process- mess and destruction creating something beautiful, but I feel less and less patient every cake of marriage lessons we bake together. Perhaps feeling means naught, though, as each cake has tasted better than the last... each disagreement and awkward silence, every lonely night and annoyed tension breathed in the air until one (or both) can be humble enough to apologize...
Perhaps to be patient one doesn't have to feel patient... just do (as Yoda and Nike would say).

Patience, another age old lesson every generation must learn and relearn anew (and to each their own)... ah the circle of life, circling round and round. Same ol', same ol'... but yet I still love cake. (^_^)