Today was one of those hard days you don’t realize was hard, until you find a moment of quiet, and all of a sudden that pile of insignificant little troubles tips over and nearly buries you.

Maybe it’s the sweat still crawling on your skin, because you haven’t had the chance to shower after exercise. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep. Maybe it’s the toys needing to be put back in the bin for the thirty-first time. Maybe it’s that it’s eight o’ clock and you forgot to thaw meat for dinner. Maybe it’s the long day you see in your husband’s eyes, yet you know he’ll have to ask him to hold the baby, or brace himself her incessant crying as you grab a diaper.

Whatever it is, you don’t realize you’ve been holding yourself together by a thin string of determination, and when it breaks, you kneel down under cover of the stairs shadow a let a couple tears squeeze out.

Not tears of pity. Not tears of pain. Just tears, because you don’t know what else to do. 

Then you pick yourself up and smile into that little cherub’s face as you put him to bed.

You smile as you mechanically wash the dishes.

You smile as you sooth your wailing infant.

You smile as you acknowledge your day was hard.

It was hard, but worth it, because there are beautiful days ahead.