What small victory has brought you some joy?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. A stay at home mama who loves her child, but misses professional work and adult conversations (with no interruptions) must always celebrate the small victories. Sometimes the things I really wanted to be victories fall flat and sometimes the unrealized small victories keep me hopeful and moving forward. Sometimes I celebrate the small victories before they come to fruition.

How things work together for the good is a real source of confusion for me. At times I’ve been sure something was, as some people call, “a God thing.” The pieces seem to be coming together and then, poof! It falls through. At times I’ve worked towards a good end without considering a true and complete finish, yet the project seems to happen effortlessly and surprisingly. This aspect of life is all such a mystery to me.

A few years ago I started noticing an empty lot at the end of my block. The weeds were growing thick. Small trees that had sprouted in the cracks were starting to thicken and the new growth was catching trash. The property was going up for a tax sale and yet nobody paid attention to that corner of God’s good earth. I started dreaming and talking and praying. In two conversations with different women (from different faith streams and very different uses of faith language) both commented that it sounded like the land was calling to me. YES! That’s exactly what it felt like.

Pieces started to fall into place. I found myself sitting next to a businessman at a community meeting who learned about the project and connected me with the best lawyer in town. He did some important paperwork for me for free. I talked with a strong  student who was a drop out, but who found a mentor and learned that he was good at working with trees and he had a passion for that work. He offered to help me clean up the lot. Lots of small pieces were coming together and then I learned about contamination in the ground. The people I worked with told me to walk away. I sat with that for a while and then… I walked away. 

I still feel deep sadness about that reality. I do think the land was calling out to me. Was I unfaithful? Was I being wise? I don’t know. I just know that I no longer live in that neighborhood and yet the  land continues to stay in my heart as if it was my child, but unborn – my first miscarriage.

On a different note, I was visiting a friend a year ago and timed the drive from her house to mine. Two minutes. Two. And I had to drive because the one intersection and the one bridge I crossed to her house are unsafe for a mama with a baby. “This is ridiculous,” I thought. “I should be able to walk my baby to a friend’s house that lives a two minute drive away.” I don’t want our daughter thinking that a person has to drive everywhere. 

So I started a bike path petition. My small goal, I told my husband, was 200 signatures. My large goal was 500 signatures. He didn’t say it, but he thought the idea was silly. He didn’t think I could get that many signatures. I ended up getting 673 signatures. Two days after closing the petition I had two different individuals contact me. Could they sign the petition? One man had a whole group of other men who were bikers who’d like to sign. I didn’t open the petition again, but I truly believe I could have hit 700.

To move the project along I spoke with neighbors, but I also spoke with the regional school board. I spoke with someone from the Community Foundation. I spoke with a county commissioner. And then I went to the commissioner’s meeting. I spoke for three minutes and the next day my picture along with an article on the proposal was in color, on the front page of the newspaper, top story. Yeah. We’re not a city. We’re small. kindof a large town, but still. A mama has gotta celebrate the small victories. 

After speaking, the county administrator came to talk with me. He wanted to put me in touch with the director of the highway department. The director then wanted to gather my “people” and some of the decision makers for a conversation. I didn’t have “people” to bring. I had worked steadily on this myself. So a group of us met at one of the libraries that the proposed bike path would pass. We had various political parties present and the conversation was pleasant – even fun!

Three months later I learned that the commissioners agreed to include plans for infrastructure in the current work being done on that intersection and on the busy road. We barely managed to submit the proposal in time for them to turn the idea into reality. Amazing!

The current nudging in my spirit is to gather women for time together with their little ones. What will we do? I’m not sure. Read? Maybe find books and read aloud about parenting? Cook? Maybe come together to make three large pots of soup to divide between us? Share? Simply talk about our children and how they’re doing? I’m not sure, but I know that stay at home mamas need interaction and they need support. 

I don’t really know if this will work or not. Will it be one of those things that just comes together or will it be one of those things that eventually crashes? Time will tell. For now, the idea keeps me hopeful. And I will continue pushing into this hope until I know whether or not it becomes a small victory to celebrate.