Families and Marriage Vows

With the wedding ring comes a limit on time, 
demands on attention, finances, and dreams.
The bars are invisible but like a force field
hard to escape if the desires arise.

Commitment is the word

to keep from suffocating.

Two babies in diapers, crying to be held,
the older children looking for an escape
out the back door, the cat’s meow echoes
in the bathroom when someone closes the door.
The din of family shakes the wood floor beams.

In the quiet evening when all are sleeping
the moon peers through the open window
no music from the radio, no television buzz
just a steady breathing, the household is sleeping.

A rustle out by the back porch, 
is it a raccoon prowling?
Get up to check, no need 
for intruders in this temporary peace. 
Make sure the door is locked. 

There are things we do in a lifetime

some make us feel like a hero, lots of recognition
and adulation, must be great to be a celebrity
but the daily demands of family living
offer challenge after challenge

and only through prayer

and a belief in something
greater can we draw strength

to do what’s needed
not for glory and fame

but because it’s the right thing.

No raccoon at the back door,

but a basket with another
baby in it. Oh my goodness,

what will we do?