Noah's Ark

I visited my psychiatrist yesterday. I was telling her that I was feeling very anxious after a long summer at home with the kids. I found it hard to get to yoga classes or to get a workout in, which is usually my release. I seemed to be going in 4 different directions all summer, but none of those directions were my own.  I tried my best to be calm, walk away, ignore, and redirect during trying times, but three months together all day is a lot.  As most of you know, my children are a bit more than most. I love my kids, but by August we all need summer to be over.  I told her I found myself having a glass of wine almost every night to help take the edge off.  Although the wine does help with that, it does not solve the underlying cause of the anxiety thus being the reason for my visit. 

She gave me a warm smile and an understanding nod.  She’s a woman of great faith and has an abundance of biblical knowledge.  She asked if I remembered the story of Noah to which I replied that I did (although some of the details are fuzzy).  She said that God gave Noah the command to build the ark which seemed to be an impossible feat.  Imagine the time, the energy, and the tireless work that he put into building an ark not knowing the outcome but just trusting God. 

My son's Noah's Ark piggy bank

She said, “Now, I’m not calling you Noah nor am I calling your kids the ark, but idea is the same. You put endless hours in building your children from the ground up not knowing the outcome but trusting God that he has a plan for them. It’s hard work.  It’s stressful.  It’s exhausting.  Do you know what Noah did after the flood?  He drank wine, and I bet that was not the only time he drank wine.  What about when he was in the building process and things weren’t going as planned?  What about when he dropped a hammer on his foot and broke a toe?  What about when his family was continuously fighting and he wasn't sure he could take another minute of it?  My guess is he drank wine then too.” 

See Genesis 9:20ish.  Basically, it says that some point after the flood, Noah planted a vineyard, produced wine, and drank the heck out of it.  I guess me and Noah have a couple things in common.  He has an ark.  I have a SUV.  He has a vineyard.  I belong to a wine club.  He was charged with the insurmountable task of building an ark in which to ensure the future of all animal kind on the face of the earth.  I have the insurmountable task of raising my kids, who act mostly like animals.  He probably had wine when he dropped a hammer on his toe, and I definitely had wine when I dropped an actual squash on my toe and broke it.  It’s the same…but different.

In addition to other measures to manage anxiety, maybe having a glass of wine now and again isn’t so bad.  I will just need to avoid the second part of Noah’s adventure with wine in which he drank so much he ended up passing out naked in a tent where his kids found him and they were super embarrassed.  Somehow, even without wine, I still seem to make my children super embarrassed.  I guess the good thing is that I prefer to be fully clothed, I am not an avid camper, and my tent is packed somewhere deep away in the basement.