The Wobbly Moments of Life
The doorbell rings. Our puppy Quinn barks. I look at my daughters and they look at me.
“Who can that be?” I wonder.
“The postman?”
“A courier?”
“Someone who’s lost?”
“We could answer the door and find out,” suggests Charlotte. But she doesn’t move. No one moves.
The doorbell rings again. And then Imogen sighs and says, “I’ll go.” She slowly uncurls herself from the sofa. She pads barefoot down the tiled hall. A growling Quinn follows close behind.
A moment later: “It’s okay! It’s only Amina!”
We all breathe a sigh of relief. Amina’s almost family. No need to move into guest mode. We can continue being us.
“How nice to see you, Amina. Want some coffee?” I smile over the edge of my laptop.
Amina ignores my coffee question. She doesn’t return my smile. She doesn’t even sit down. Instead, she plants herself in front of me and gets right down to business. “What’s going on?” She points a finger at my computer. “Your blog has disappeared!”
“No, it hasn’t,” I protest. “It’s still there. You just can’t see it.”
“And why can’t I see it?” Amina demands.
I utter a few disjointed words in a pathetic kind of way before Amina takes pity on me. She says, “You’re having a wobbly moment, aren’t you?” Her voice has softened. “Wondering if you should delete your blog? Why should anyone want to read your stories? Why should they listen to you? And what’s so special about your family? No one will miss your blog? They won’t even notice it’s gone? Am I right?”
I nod my head before mumbling, “I know, I know, same old story…”
Amina waves my words away. “Do you want to know what I think?” She rushes on without waiting for an answer. “Why should anyone listen to you? Because you have an important message to share. People need to know about unschooling. What’s so special about your family? Unschooling. You’re not promoting your family. You’re promoting unschooling. Showing how it leads to a life full of love and joy. You don’t want to keep something so amazing to yourself, do you?” I shake my head as she continues: “No one will miss your blog? I missed it.”
Amina raises her finger again and points it at my laptop. I reach for my mouse and click it a few times before saying, “It’s back!” Amina smiles. “Did you say something about coffee?” she asks.
So my blog is back. Thanks to Amina. (I bet you didn’t even notice it was gone.)
Now I’m wondering… Do you ever have wobbly moments, times when you doubt what you’re doing? And do you have a friend like Amina who encourages you, boosts your confidence, and gets you back on track?
If you do, your friend is probably real. Unlike Amina. I had to make her up. You see, we don’t have any friends because we’re introverted weird unsociable unschoolers who don’t even like answering our own front door.