Flying Through Life By the Seat of my Jammies
I think this would make a good talk title.
So I did it again, and suspect I won't stop. Out the door in the morning in my jammies.
Here is my profound thought for the day, as I am struggling to juggle:
So I did it again, and suspect I won't stop. Out the door in the morning in my jammies.
Here is my profound thought for the day, as I am struggling to juggle:
- One overly dramatic twelve year old (there is a cyclical reason for the emotions
- Another daughter who can't be rushed and still doesn't know how to brush her hair
- A husband whose parting words and sage advice to me this morning had something to do with routine and how wonderful but often missing it was in our life
- A mother who stores soup cans under her bed and needs to go to PT to have her gait evaluated
- A fifteen year old cat who likes lasagna and is a messy eater
- A dog who looks like Marley and is also becoming less able to do stairs (maybe he can join my mom at PT later today!
I need more margin in my life. I historically have not allowed nearly enough margin in my life and one would think with all the ridiculous twists and turns my life takes, I would have gotten this message sooner.
Do you have enough margin in your life? What can you do to simplify, which will de-stress?
Here are a couple of ideas:
- Say "yes" to nothing out of guilt.
- Get up before your kids and have at least one cup of beverage of choice. For me that would be coffee.
- Ask God for help. H-e-l-p-p-p-p-p-p-!!!!! That suffices!
- Set realistic expectations. Ha, I know I am not one to talk, but I'm working on it.
Have a great day!
Labels: adding margin, juggling too much, simplifying life, Slowing down
posted by www.kathypride.com at
8:40 AM
6 Comments:
Well, I woke up with a headache for the fifth day in a row. Coffee helps, so that's what I do FIRST. And, for the second day in a row, I have failed to get Simone to school. I thought we were doing better since vacation. I got her there, albeit late, everyday last week. Now she says she has a sore throat. I wonder how far in life one can get with half of sixth grade and nothing after?
I am headed off the physical therapy for my arm, neck and now breast (the mastectomy side). It's helpful, but a lot of work. Tell your mom I understand all too well.
Do you subscribe (or ever just pick up) Oprah's magazine? I love it and get a great deal out of it every month. Mine just came yesterday. There's a great article about making more opportunities for yourself and being open to the new twists and turns life brings us all.
Have a great day. Love ya!
I have a feeling I would love O, but I barely have time to read what I already have in the house!
I have sent my kids to school already with sore throats...
I will tell my mom you are going to PT, she will probably give me a blank look and say "who?" The slide seems to be building momentum.
More margin...Peace
Sorry about the slide.
I have something to say about hectic-ivity-ness-ism....I'm sure it will not make sense now, but in the middle of the night sometime, if you ever pause your thinking, it might make sense...or, then again, not.
When my brother was sick (ok, dying) God and I had some long talks about healing and why we don't see miraculous healing in the church like there was in the early church. We do, on a more personal scale, but you know, there aren't oodles of Christians healing people all over the place, like I would have expected.
Shortly before my son was baptised, we were reading about Jesus and in one of the gospels, I think it was Mark, it talks about Jesus healing a man (was he blind? lame? I forget) and Jesus told the man, "Go, and don't tell anyone." But of course, the man told everyone....who could keep such a thing a secret?? The result was that Jesus and his disciples had to move to another town (which only worked because they didn't have CBS and ABC and Fox News).
Imagine the reality of life for a person with that gift nowadays? There would be no place they could go to ever get any rest. They would not have any relationship with their family anymore or they would have to subject their family (kids, husband) to swarms of people constantly. After I had this revelation, I was actually thanking God that he did not "bless" me that way.
But that's not the whole story. Busy as I am now with my god-given responsibilities, I sometimes don't have time to be with God, to stop, to be quiet and to listen. I pray all the time, I listen and worship and just bask in God's presence far less. Sometimes a whole day will go by when I don't even say "I love you" to God.
God is a jealous god. That's not a bad thing. He is jealous in a good way. We can say "yes" to all kinds of good things; but we had better be sure that we are saying "yes" to quiet time, to worship time, to "I love you" time with God before we say "yes" to anything else.
I think that probably falls under "set realistic expectations". If we have so much to do that we can't quiet our mind and block out life for a time every day, then we have said "yes" to too much.
Actually, I like and agree with what you say here. And that is what is coming to the surface, that this is a season of resting, listening, and building wide margins into my life and spending more of that time with God.
Thanks for your thoughts, which make perfect sense, and I don't even have to reflect on it in the middle of the night!
PS... I got to see ultrasound pictures today of my grandchild!! I can see fingers and toes!! The cyst on the umbilical cord has resolved. My daughter is still spotting, but not as much as before and she doesn't have to go back for a whole month and all activity restrictions have been lifted (unless the spotting increses, in which case she is to take it easier). She is still sick, but learning to slow downa and to deal with it. The baby's heart rate was 179, same as last time and growth is as expected. Everything looks good. (Personaly, I think it's a girl, given how sick my daughter has been. I was way sicker with my dauther than with my son, and mom was sicker with me than with my brothers....I'd love to see a poll about that one!!). :)
Great title! I have an author friend, Marsha Marks, and I think one of her books was "Flying by the Seat of my Pants." We grew up in the same youth group and attended high school together. She became a flight attendant/author! Her writing is hysterical, like the time they propped up a dead passenger in First Class, so as not to "scare" the other passengers!
Umm...I can say yes and no in the same sentence and mean both (is that progress?!?!?).
HUGS!
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