EASE

If you haven't heard by now, I'm delighted to announce that my family is expecting an addition sometime around Thanksgiving Day.  The discovery of this was joyous and wonderful, although I knew I had a long road ahead of me.  Neither of my boys made things very easy on Mommy when they were carefully developing.  I'd bear any burden necessary for my children, so while it sucks, it's worth the discomforts I'd experienced: nausea and morning sickness that lasted well over half of each pregnancy.  Other than that, I'd been fairly lucky with my share of pregnancy woes and didn't have much to complain about.
This time around, I'm finding the absence of this symptom a little frightening and I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I think instead I've been given heartburn, and I have yet to discover which foods are triggering this disturbing phenomenon.  In the mean time, I have befriended a bottle of Tums, and at the point in my day when the discomfort is unbearable, I share a private moment with my Tums.  They are the only thing that I've found which ease the burn.

I happen to be a "pay it forward" type of person, so I was mulling over the concept of antacids and how I could apply this to my life.  (Yes, I know, I'm weird.)  Antacids are used to alleviate ailments such as heartburn, indigestion, sour stomach, etc.  So, if a taco is what ruins my day, the Tums are what makes it better.  Hmmmmmmm.
Apparently, all I need to do in order to spread the love my Tums have given me, is to make some one's day better and not worse.  I think I can do this with ease.
For starters, who plans their own agenda for the day around ruining someone elses day?  No one sets out to do that.  I don't think I need to concern myself with how to NOT BE some one's heartburn.  It's safe to say that even the people I don't care for really have no reason to worry I might cause them grief.  Frankly I've got better things to do.
The better way to go about this is that when I see someone, whether I know them or not, having a rough moment/day/week/eternity, I can ask how I can ease their road and make it less bumpy.  I can listen to them talk.  I can make cookies.  I can steer them towards someone else who can help them better than me.
I've found a new goal in this bottle of pink and purple chalky circles.  It pleases me greatly to think that rather than leaving a sour acidic growl in some one's day I can be the one to ease it.  In this spirit, I've found a new motto:
Don't be the heartburn.  Be the Tums.