Chicken Soup for the Single's Soul by Jack Canfield Mark Victor Hansen

Author:Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

Message in a Mug

Y ou have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.

Brian Tracy

My cries must have woken him. My son, P. J., stands before me, his blue eyes filled with concern.

“What’s the matter, Mommy? Why are you crying?”

What can I say to him that won’t sound like I’m scared? I’m all my children have, and I need to be strong for them.

“I just find it hard sometimes to take care of you guys and go to college at the same time,” I say finally. “Exams are next week, and I’m just . . .” my voice broke, “just tired, I guess.”

Just so tired.

Going back to college full-time as a single parent of two children had been a difficult choice. But I didn’t want to be a welfare mom. I wanted more for my children—for them to value education, for them to be proud of their mother. Yet without emotional and family support, I had found this to be a journey of being alone, feeling alone and doing it alone.

Tonight it had hit me all at once. It was too difficult to pay all the bills, take care of the children, study for exams, clean the house. Life was piling up around me, and I suddenly wanted out.

“I can’t go on, Lord,” I cried. “I can’t do this! It’s too tough. I thought I had the strength, but I don’t.”

Just then my son interrupted my panicked thoughts for a second time. Holding his Buddy doll tighter, he came closer and said very quietly, “God made the whole world, Mom. And he’s a single parent.”

I knelt down next to him. “What did you say?”

P. J. repeated tentatively, “God is a single parent, too.”

His words washed away my loneliness, my feelings of self-pity, of being angry at the world and God.

“P. J., that’s wonderful! I’m going to put that saying on posters, cards, T-shirts—just everything.”

I took his little hands, and P. J. and I danced around the living room laughing and singing. Then I carried him back to bed.

My spirit renewed, I studied most of the night.

After exams were over, I made good on my promise to P. J. With the help of a friend, I ordered one thousand coffee mugs; I had them printed with the words, “God Is a Single Parent, Too!” Then I went door to door in my building, giving a mug to all the single parents I knew—my version of a message in a bottle.

Some just thanked me, with tears in their eyes. Others invited me in for a cup of coffee and told me their own experiences and feelings about being a single parent. Trading stories showed me that my struggle was not a unique one, that mine was not a journey taken alone. Many others trudged daily beside me; I’d just been too focused on myself to notice my fellow travelers.

I still have some mugs left. Once in a while I become newly acquainted with single parents who need encouragement.

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