My son is seven today. And while they are certainly moments of pain and tears, it has all been the opposite of work. My son is pure joy. A beautiful and loving soul that God has put into my care to raise up.

I am in awe of that. That there are apparently things about me so good that God and my son decided, yes, she should be my mom.

And that’s what I try to think of when life gets a little hard. When work is literally piling up around me and I’ve got five to-do lists on my desk. When it’s late at night and I’m not sleeping because of the thoughts keeping me up.

Why am I doing this work? What is this all for? What am I demonstrating about life to my child?

I want him to know it is not all work and no play. That “work” can be play.

But my heart if not heavy to do. Not anywhere close. There will be no work in getting his cake done or celebratory dinner made. Or even tidying the house. Not work at all. Pure joy.

For October, I’m writing in conjunction with 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes and each post is written in five minutes flat.