I was thinking what could I possibly get my parents for a Holiday gift, I fantasize about getting them cars and boats and houses….But then I realize what is really missing from their lives.  And it is this revelation. A LONG time coming and I hope everyone is sitting down. Here it is…..I GET IT.  Now that I have kids of my own, I GET IT…now that my own children draw on the walls and  eat food in front of the TV spilling juice into the couch and grinding crumbs into the floor. I GET IT….It feels so disrespectful to have something nice and then this wild unknowing child comes and makes a fort out of a perfectly good living room and leaves it there, filling it with popcorn and tiny toys and duct tape and paper clips and styrofoam and anything else that can make the mess bigger.  I GET IT. I GET how frustrating and annoying that really is…..and I am truly deeply sorry for that.  I know most of my childhood was a long winding argument over one mess or another.
   And yet as horrific as the messes were, I know also that when I wander around my home, late at night, the children gone, and I find a shoe in the kitchen or a small battlefield of toys unexpectedly in the hallway, the mess warms my heart…It irritates ..and then warms…?  Aww , My child was here. My child sat here playing, thinking, in a different world, unaware how this lego could cause my foot some midnight harm. My child was being himself right here.
   And I thought..oh how sad for my parents, to be without my mess.  And so. Here it is, To look upon whenever the mood strikes.  It is titled “A Beautiful Mess” and it is…without exaggeration…exactly what it looks like after I visit for a few days.