But while I was at work, a couple of older women with a younger woman (who was pregnant) came in to the store. They were browsing around and chatting about what the older women thought the pregnant woman should get (because they know best, obviously, because they've been through it all... note the sarcasm). They stumbled upon our cloth diaper wall - which is a huge wall full of all of our diapers right next to a table filled with our prefolds and all sample dipes. The older women then just started making fun of cloth diapers and how silly they are. They said to the pregnant woman, "Just recycle your bottles, don't worry about diapers. This is so much silly work."
Another woman came in with her around 10 year old daughter. They came upon the cloth diaper wall where she started laughing and telling her daughter how she knows someone who is planning on cloth diapering and how they were in for a "rude awakening." She went on to explain to her daughter that it was not a good concept as it is just so much work and so messy and disgusting. She said, "Disposables are just so much easier and more convenient."
Since when is anything about having and bearing children more convenient or easier? Since when did our convenience as mothers and fathers and families outweigh our responsibility to our children, to the environment, or to health in general?
It is more convenient for me to buy Cecilia a Big Mac, is that what is best for her health?
It is more convenient for me to skip mass on Sundays and Holy Days, is that what is best for her soul?
It is more convenient for our family if Mike works a normal job, but is that what the Lord is leading him to and is it for the betterment of the Kingdom?
It is more convenient to ignore the poor and needy in the world, but is that what is the humane thing to do?
It is more convenient to do a lot of things... but it has nothing to do with the betterment of our lives, of our children's lives, or the lives of our brothers and sisters in the world.
I hope that I never teach Cecilia that convenience is the most important thing in the world - but that she may understand sometimes in the struggle we find much grace, determination and success.
I hope that that mother, in her own way, will teach her daughter that life's journey is not about convenience, but about finding beauty and good in all of the ways of the world - and working hard for something that you truly believe in, that you know is for a better quality of life, that may be more difficult, but more fulfilling in the end, is what matters in the end.
"Nobody said it was easy..." ~coldplay
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