Mother Noah according to Madeleine L’Engle
May 13, 2013 in God - Faith - Hope - Love, Nurturing the Child
Mother Noah must have been amazing! Author Madeleine L’Engle thinks so. Yes, the same Madeleine L’Engle who wrote “A Wrinkle in Time”, a must read for kids and adults.
Mother Noah must have been a busy woman which I am sure all women can relate to. Whether you are at the beginning, middle or end of mothering, I think you will enjoy Ms. L’Engle’s take on Mother Noah. She uses her awesome creativity to help us imaging what might have taken place on the ark, make sure and read to the end for the “grand motherhood” punch line.
Mrs. Noah Speaking I suppose under the circumstances There’s really no point in complaining but really! Noah and I had just got accustomed to living alone and having some peace and quiet and fixing up the house the way we wanted it at last. I brought up tree boys, wiped their runny noses, changed their messy diapers, washed, sewed, cooked, saw to it that they had the proper advantages, We got them safely married (thought if I didn’t know it before I know it now: their wives leave a great deal to be desired). We liked having them come to visit us on the proper holidays, bring the babies, taking enough food home to feed them for a week, and Noah and I could go to bed in peace. And now look what has happened! Sometimes I think it would have been simpler to have drowned with everybody else— at least their troubles are over. And here we are jammed in this Ark— why didn’t the Lord give Noah enough time to build a big enough ark If he wanted him to build one at all? The animals take up almost all the room and Noah and I are crowded together with Shem, Ham, and Japheth, their slovenly wives and noisy children, and nowhere to go for a moment’s peace. Noah, of course had hidden several elephant’s skins of wine somewhere, and when the rain and noise and confusion get too bad he goes down to the dirty hold with the beast and gets drunk, sleeps it off on the dirty straw, and then comes up to bed smelling of armadillo dung and platypus piss. Not that I blame him. It’s my daughters-in-law who get me. They insist on changing the beds every time I turn around. They won’t use a towel more than once, and they’re always getting dressed up and throwing their dirty linen at me to wash. The washing is easy enough—we’ve plenty of water— But how do they expect me to get anything dry in all this rain? I don’t mind doing the cooking, but they’re always coming out to the kitchen to fix little snacks with the excuse that it will help me: “You’re so good to us, Mother Noah, we’ll just do this for you,” and they never put anything away where it belongs. They’ve lost one of my measuring cups and they never clean the stove and they’ve broken half of the best china that came down to us from Grandfather Seth. When the babies squall in the night, who gets up with them? Not my daughters-in-law. “Oh, Mother Noah’ll do it. She loves the babies so.” Ham’s wife is always stirring up quarrels, playing people off against each other. Shem’s wife, who never does anything for anybody, manages to make me feel lazy and mean if I ask her to dry one dish. Japheth’s wife is eyeing Shem and Ham; she’ll cause trouble; mark my words. Today that silly dove Noah is so fond of came back with an olive twig on his beak. Maybe there’s hope that we’ll get out of this Ark after all. We’ve landed! At last! Now we can get back to normal and have some peace and quiet and If I put something where it belongs it will stay there and I can clean up this mess and get some sleep at night and— Noah! Noah! I miss the children.Funny, huh? This was a quote from Madeleine L’Engle’s book “The Irrational Season”, which I was reading this morning as I took a hot bath which I do sometimes to ease my achy bones or just taking a little “me” time.
I am sure you all can use a little of that right? Hey dads, watch the kids for an hour, run the tub, light some candles and let mom do a little soak and read time, a great mom gift, good all year round. (mom’s you might just have to ask and don’t tell anyone where you will be, try it.)
Madeleine L’Engle Book-about life, family and Christian community, great read!
Noah’s Ark flip page book- there are so many great Noah’s Ark books available
Kids 1st book about Noah-check your local thrift store/yard sales for lots of affordable books
The 1st picture is from KidKraft Noah’s Ark shape sorter– looks fun, I have never seen this one before.
Other posts you may like: My Mother’s Creative Legacy with more motherly post links @ the bottom
Which part of motherhood gets you plainly pooped out? Which part of motherhood unexpectantly lifts you up? Leave a comment…
We only recommend products from Amazon that we have tried and used or would purchase ourselves.
We love sharing great resources for you and your children to make life a little more happy and healthy.
Happy Belated Mother’s Day
Ms. Dawn
