Shiny half monkeys

From singing crazy songs in the supermarket to calm a cranky baby to giving the last cookie in the house to your teenage daughter who had a bad day; parents give so very much to the ones we have been entrusted with.

With all my heart I love my children, though sometimes they do make me tired. There is not a moment when I am not glad to have become a mother. Not a second that I am not glad they are mine.

This weekend I saw something that, to me, completely captures what it means to be a parent.

As I drove with a friend, their wrist turned slightly upward as they maneuvered through the snow. Just at that moment I looked over and noticed something shiny and small on their watch band. I literally grinned, I knew what it was, but I had to ask.

There, on a very nice watch, was half of a holographic monkey sticker! A very dear little daughter gifted her parent with the sticker when it was bright, shiny and in possession of all its limbs and instructed her parent that the monkey really needed to go on the watch.

So, onto the watch the monkey went, traveling everyday losing his color a little bit at a time.

Sunday, as it sat perched on the band of my friend's watch, the sticker was an echo of its old monkey self. But, the love that caused it to be given and the love that caused it to remain are as strong as ever.

Selfless love, what a gift we are given as parents. What an opportunity to be loved for simply being ourselves. What a blessing to be able to love our children in the same way.

So, be it half a monkey or a lopsided pot on your co-worker's desk, the next time you see the offering of a child, stop and consider the love behind the gift.

May your life be full of that kind of joy.

May someone love you like a child does.

May you have your own version of a shiny half monkey.