{"id":7248,"date":"2018-04-17T12:02:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T18:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mops.org\/?p=7248"},"modified":"2018-04-17T12:02:15","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T18:02:15","slug":"surrounded-by-a-great-cloud-of-witnesses-in-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/surrounded-by-a-great-cloud-of-witnesses-in-target\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrounded by a Great Cloud of Witnesses in Target"},"content":{"rendered":"

As any mother knows, when your husband is traveling, and all your planning and creative strategies and Amazon Prime-ing have fallen through, you have to do the thing you are always trying to avoid at all costs: You have to take all your kids to Target with you.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s OK. We\u2019re just going to zip in and zip out and be home before anyone even realizes it. I just need paper plates and dry shampoo (obviously).<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I had made the fatal error of getting my kids a Slurpee after school as a way to bribe them into good behavior. In retrospect, this was a terribly flawed plan because I basically gave them speedballs and then begged them to sit still.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in the paper goods section, and I see that my Luke and Lane have pulled out all the oversized blocks of bulk toilet paper from the shelf, have stuffed Elle onto the shelf, and are now walling her in while she screams in horror and delight. Brick by brick. Entombed by Charmin. It was Poe\u2019s Cask of Amontillado right there in the toilet paper aisle of Target.<\/p>\n

A woman is standing by herself in this very same section and she is clearly horrified by my children. Not even horrified. Angry.<\/p>\n

She begins talking about how horribly behaved my kids are, how awful the parenting is these days, and how these kids are going to hurt someone.<\/p>\n

I froze. I could not think of one thing to say to her. I could only gather my kids awkwardly and get away.<\/p>\n

As we walked away, I got teary as Lane asked, \u201cMom, what was that woman saying?\u201d and I felt all my depletion rush into the moment. All of a sudden I couldn\u2019t remember the last time I had taken a shower. I couldn\u2019t remember if I was wearing a bra. I couldn\u2019t remember what I had come to the store to get.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was being unkind,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd \u2026 you guys can\u2019t destroy Target.\u201d<\/p>\n

I began thinking of all the things I could have said to her, and even considered marching back over to her with some select words:<\/p>\n

I wish I would have asked her if she\u2019d like to help instead of insult me. I wish I would have told her that I thought her shoes were horrible.<\/p>\n

But I kept pushing my cart.<\/p>\n

My phone rings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi, T.,\u201d I say. It\u2019s Tina calling.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, Lee, are you in Target? Laurel said she just saw you and the kids in another aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I am in Target. I\u2019m near the checkout.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I\u2019m saying those words, Tina and her young daughter, Laurel, come into view, smiling, arms out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you OK?\u201d she says right as she sees me, the look on my face clearly telling the whole story.<\/p>\n

I tell her how a lady just tore me a new one in the toilet paper aisle.<\/p>\n

And Tina immediately walks with me to the registers and helps herd the crew as waves of anxiety are still shocking through my body.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Lee,\u201d she says. \u201cI want to go back and trip her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLeedles,\u201d I hear one of my many nicknames said in front of me?<\/p>\n

I look up and there is Linsey. Alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you OK?\u201d she says, my face still obviously drained.<\/p>\n

Tina rejoins me and tells Linsey the entire story. Of the lady. And the kids. While Linsey shakes her head and looks me right in the eye. Tina passes me and my crew off to Linsey.<\/p>\n

Linsey takes my keys and two of my kids by the hand and stays with me all the way to my car. She helps kids get buckled in and she hugs me. Linsey doesn\u2019t even like to hug. She says in my ear, \u201cYou\u2019re doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tina has known me since I was 11. Linsey has known me since I was 18. Two of my very best friends in the entire world just happened to be at the Rancho San Diego Target on a day when I was getting shredded by a stranger.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s practically intolerable to be so deeply disapproved of and to have to tell people about it all while being seen with greasy hair and lunatic children while, possibly, wearing no bra.<\/p>\n

But I tolerate it. I have to. Love is taking my car keys and holding Elle\u2019s hand. Love is putting my items in my cart and chatting with my kids. Love is handing me my purse. Love is asking me, \u201cIs there anything else you need?\u201d Love texts me later to check in.<\/p>\n

St. John of the Cross wrote,<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is grace,\u201d I asked God.
\nAnd He said,
\n\u201cAll that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have a hunch this might be true. I have a hunch that every wall could be a door. Even a toilet paper wall in Target reinforced by a woman\u2019s awful words could become a door that leads to Love.<\/p>\n

This excerpt was taken from Leeana’s newly released book, <\/em>Begin Again: The Brave Practice of Releasing Hurt and Receiving Rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"LeeanaLeeana Tankersley is the author of four books including her newest, Begin Again: The Brave Practice of Releasing Hurt and Receiving Rest<\/em><\/a> (use 50% off code: mopsba<\/strong>). She has three kids \u2013 Luke (9), Lane (9) and Elle (6). Leeana and her family live in San Diego, California. Learn more about her work at LeeanaTankersley.com<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As any mother knows, when your husband is traveling, and all your planning and creative strategies and Amazon Prime-ing have fallen through, you have to do the thing you are always trying to avoid at all costs: You have to take all your kids to Target with you. That\u2019s OK. We\u2019re just going to zip […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":7256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[1436,1437,675,373,169,54,55,49,56,1438,1439],"class_list":["post-7248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-relationships","tag-amazon","tag-book-giveaway","tag-friends","tag-grace","tag-kids","tag-mama","tag-mom","tag-mother","tag-motherhood","tag-target","tag-toilet-paper"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}