"Do I want to try?"

I love it when things fall into place. Today was hard in that hard on yourself as a mother sort of way. But you never know when or where you'll find an encouraging word.

One of my new favorite authors is Barbara Kingsolver (I know, I'm way late and totally missed the boat on this one). I'm currently reading my second novel of hers, "The Bean Trees", and came across this passage. It's funny and inspiring to find fictional characters dealing with issues I feel I've been addressing for quite some time now, ever since becoming a mom.

Just so you know I'm editing this to get down to the part that really spoke to me. Hope I'm not breaking any sort of copyright laws here.


"When you told me about babies getting dehydrated it scared the living daylights out of me. I realized I had no business just assuming I could take the responsibility for a child's life."

"There's not a decent mother in the world that hasn't realized that."

"So how does a person make a decision that important?"

"If you don't mind me saying so I think you're asking the wrong question. You're asking yourself, Can I give this child the best possible upbringing and keep her out of harm's way her whole life long? The answer is no, you can't."

"So what's the right thing to ask?"

"Do I want to try?"


We're none of us perfect - we can only do our best and try not to berate ourselves for our shortcomings. Our best will be good enough; it has to be. And I already know I want to try, there's not been a question about that.

Now I just hope I can really hear this.