Be All That You Can Be

The army slogan "be all that you can be" isn't only for the military. It is really an American mantra that is drilled into our progressive, workaholic minded culture.  There doesn't seem to be a balance between work and life and instead the lines become muddled in gray. Being a married woman with no children, the impact of this truth hasn't really hit me as hard as it could. I know that work is healthy, keeps you grounded and gives you purpose. However, when visiting our neighbhors recently to see their new bundle of joy, this truth hit home. Here was a family with their first child and the mom was going to stay at home and raise the child. I was immediately defensive and jealous. Much to my own dismay, I launched into a speech of how impossible it is for two parents to have this option, when the "option" was right in front of me. They were choosing to have this balance that I so yearned for, but everything around me told me it couldn't be, it wasn't right and so on. When did our culture stop valuing mothers for mother's sake? When did daycare take the place of what only a mother can do? I can't say, but I am sorry to see it is a different world than the older generation experienced. 

My mother raised six children on one blue collar salary. She tells me that it is possible and I smile and say in my head 'not true.' In an effort to be progressive and career minded, values have gone out the door. There are strangers raising the next generation and still with all the money, power and equality, people are more unhappy than ever. What will it take to "be all that we can be" for real? Take back your life even if in small increments and don't sell out the one life you have for the approval of those who don't have to live your life at all. This sounds so preachy, but is so true. The lack, the lack and the lack. Simplicity is so much more than just having less. It is taking less on to have more.