The FedEx Arrow: What It Taught Me About Motherhood

Have you ever noticed the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo?

It's there - between the "E" and the "x" - in the negative white space. Once you see it, it will be the first thing your eyes are drawn to every time you see a FedEx truck.

The arrow isn't outlined. It isn't a different color. It's just there, in all of its understatedness - waiting to be found.

It's easily missed. Unless you're looking for it.

Many years ago, when I first saw the FedEx arrow just hangin' out there in that logo, I began to think of my life a bit differently:

Are these "arrows" everywhere? Are they scattered about my life and in my busyness and hurriedness, big picture wins and little graces lose?

Am I so focused on GLORY, JUST GET ME TO BEDTIME, that I'm...missing them?

I SO want the hidden treasures in the everyday to become what my eyes are immediately drawn to. I want to revel in the joy and love and hilarity that are running around me in the form of these tiny creatures God has give me - EVEN THOUGH I'm buried under piles of laundry.

Even though days are long and hard.

Even. Though.

I want to celebrate baby chub and acorns and flour spilled all over my kitchen. Because, darn it, HOW AWESOME are these little gifts?

Since spending time thinking on these arrows, I can tell you - they are EVERYWHERE! It's a splash of half-and-half instead of skim milk in my morning coffee. It's using our wedding china instead of our everyday dishes for eating taco dip while watching Monday Night Football. It's discovering that cheerful shade of green Playdoh that can only be made by smushing together the blue and the yellow.

When I never wanted to get out the gosh darn Playdoh in the first place.

But that green? I could've missed it.

That arrow taught me to celebrate everyday joys. Instead of brushing by them.

But most importantly, it taught me to purposefully hide these arrows all over my children's lives. I want to splash their memories with ice cream for dinner, flashlight walks, and sticky, messy lollipops - for no reason at all.

Simple joys. Little treasures. From their frazzled Mama. To my little arrow hunters.

My hope for them is that they relive their childhood in vivid, sweet color - finding the arrows I've left for them.

I want them to find every single one of them.