Picture this scenario. I am in a hurry to get somewhere important. Fine, I am going to the store to get some cookies, but I really want them. Not the point. Okay, so I change The Munch’s diaper, I get her dressed, I put her in her little snow suit, I go to put her in the car seat, and then I hear it… the gurgling wetness of a poo. So I take off her snow suite, unbutton her onsie, change her, button back up her onsie, put back on her snow suite, put her back in the car seat, and then… oh dear… she wasn’t finished. You see where this is going.

Now did her bowels plan this? Was her colon teaching me a lesson?

Often times, I find we humans treat life as if it were a means to an end. Everything we do is for some desired outcome. I do well in school, because I want a good job. I want a good job because I want to make money. I want to make money so I can buy stuff. I want stuff so I can get laid. But what if life isn’t a means to an end… what if life is an end in and of itself?

With the extreme level of repetition I have to live now that I have baby, it really reminds me to find joy in the process, because if I don’t I might go off all Girl Interrupted style. I have to do the same thing over and over and over, from the diaper changes, to the napping, to the bath time, to the nighty night time… all while maintaining a fun demeanor so she doesn’t think I am as boring as local news.

What makes it all worthwhile, is that even though it feels like all these moments could just melt together into one big mounting laundry pile of chores, The Munch finds even the most mundane activities exciting. As long as I am smiling and making faces, she thinks that washing shit stains out her pajamas is like a night at Studio 54.

And besides… what am I really complaining about. Imagine if I were Pilgrim and churning butter for 7 hours a day! At least I can listen to my Ipod rather than the musical styling of Old Man Withers playing the mouth harmonica while whittling wood on the porch overlooking the prairie… actually that sounds kind of nice…

(Yes her car seat is a basket… I am going to go harvest some wheat now…)