Last night I set a glass of water on the dresser near my bed. This morning I found ants lined up at the water’s edge like cows at a watering hole INSIDE THE GLASS.
I only mention it because: it’s always something, isn’t it? Every day has some weird thing or other going on.
(Well, that and: Thank GOODNESS I did not get up for a drink in the night.)
I do not have days where everything goes according to plan.
Maybe it’s because of living with kids, maybe it’s because of interacting with other people, maybe it’s because of being human, but a whole lot of the time my “plans” turn out to be more like “ideas that do not actually happen (but how cute that you thought they might!)” rather than “a guarantee of order.”
I kinda of suspect that perfectly-ordered days are not DAYS, they are DREAMS. They are IMAGINARY. They do not happen in real life. Admittedly, my real life has been populated by an unusually high number of toddlers, so my perspective may be off. But still.
The point is, I never think to pencil in extra time marked “deal with the sudden influx of ants to my water glass” to my day.
No, that is not the point.
The point is, the somethings are going to show up whether I plan for them or not. Most days it’s just little things. Some days you get bigger ones.
Everyone’s lives are being shaken up, in big ways and little, all the time. That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong, it just means we’re awake. And breathing.
To grow, to expand, to become more of yourself, you have to move beyond your neatly ordered plans and ideas.
You have to change, just like your plans change.
A flower doesn’t look much like a bud or a stem or a seed, right? But it was all those things before it turned into petals and flashes of color.
We think we get to choose whether we have change and disruption and unexpected mess.
We are wrong.
We don’t have a choice about that. Those things are going to show up no matter how neatly we write in our daily planners.
What we get to choose is how to respond.
Over at Simple Homeschool, I’m talking about strategies for coping with life disruptions.
I thrive on peace and calm and intention and purpose. I like to meet needs and meet goals, to make progress and make things work. Our days are fluid, but there’s “fluid” and then there’s “melted into a pile of goo.” I prefer the former.
Disruption, in other words, is not my favorite thing.
I have five better suggestions than “melting into a pile of goo,” though really, that’s always an option.
We can choose gratitude (for SOMETHING—it doesn’t have to be for the disruptive stuff).
We can leave space for feeling our feelings.
Unlike the ants in my water glass, we know the feelings are coming. We can be intentional about making room for them.
We can ask for help (say yes!) and set boundaries (say no).
We can practice awareness, and look for the ways we’re growing and becoming more of who we are meant to be.
And one more, for good measure: we can get extra sleep, even if I always forget that.
You are body and mind and spirit and soul, all wrapped up together.
You can take care of all those parts of yourself when the world around you is swirling.
Change is coming, and change is here, and change is always on the way. Read more thoughts on handling it at Simple Homeschool.
