Squirming in his highchair, my son swats the spoon from my hand, sending splatters of yogurt across the floor while my daughter climbs across my lap. What do you get when you cross a jungle gym and a cafeteria lunch lady? The answer is me.
We’ve come to the apex of the day when hunger arises like a surprise rainstorm and naptime is just around the bend. My own belly grumbles as I eagerly pop some leftovers into the microwave in between spoonfuls of yogurt. “What do you want for lunch, honey?” I ask my daughter. “Sugar,” is the prompt response, to which I half laugh half cringe. The game of twister continues as I try to feed three people at once and throw some breakfast plates in the dishwasher. Of course, it’s at this moment when my mind decides to remind me of 20 other tasks that need doing. I twist around the kitchen like a confused tornado.
Then comes the corner.
Suddenly, I’m sitting at the table eating my lunch in peace, watching my children erupt into giggles from a game they have created together that I can’t quite figure out. I don’t know how the confused tornado ended up eating lunch in peace, but somehow, I’m here and I offer a silent prayer of gratitude to God for the beauty of corners.
After my daughter was born, I received endless warnings about the big corners of motherhood. I’ve lost count of the times complete strangers told me, “Enjoy it now, they’ll be grown up before you know it,” and “It goes by so fast,” as soon as they saw the baby in my arms.
But no one tells you about the beauty of the little corners that come throughout the day. The ones that take you from a morning of lukewarm coffee and endless whining to your children playing so nicely together that you dare to crack open the novel you’re reading. The ones when post naptime whining magically becomes a kitchen dance party or the tough fall becomes a rare opportunity to snuggle with your toddler who is becoming a “big kid” right under your nose. No one tells you about these corners, but they await us when we least expect it as a welcome reminder that the ability to begin again is always at our fingertips.
The dawn of the New Year poses a large corner to turn, and each of us in our own way scrambles to embrace this significant calendar change in the hopes that this corner will bring us a better life. The desire to make resolutions at this time is actually due to something psychologists have named “the fresh start effect,” whereby the newness of the year encourages people to make positive changes. Yet despite the general population’s eagerness to make significant changes in their lives, most resolutions fizzle out as quickly as those New Year’s Eve champagne bubbles.
So, instead of facing the New Year as if turning a huge corner, why not celebrate the beauty of the small corners? Instead of vowing to change something large about your life, start small with something that will last, or consider renewing resolutions every month. What if instead of jumping headfirst into the big changes we desire, we looked back over the past year at the small, hidden moments of renewal that come throughout the year and asked ourselves how we can make those more prominent. Some of these small corners could look like:
- A new daily prayer that moves your heart to peace.
- Choosing one virtue to grow in.
- Finding a new saint to befriend.
- Daily journaling.
- Reading one book per month.
- Find an enriching podcast to follow.
- Start a journal of family memories you’ll want to remember one day.
While we all turn large corners in life, the small corners are what slowly and steadily lead us to greater change, and as Christ reminds us in Luke 16:10, “He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater.” May we too, remain humbly faithful to the little corners, always turning closer to He who is The Cornerstone and the beginning and end of all that is good.
“There is one thing which gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner.”
G.K. Chesterton
