Flexibility

Sometimes life throws you a curveball. Sometimes you strike out. We all have those bad days or days when we struggle to regain our perspective.

One thing I have learned is that I need to learn to trust outside myself. I like to be in control of my surroundings, every detail immaculately planned and executed according to the plans made well in advance. But, the best laid plans will sometimes go awry. I live in the world and I have children. That should explain it.

So my children are teaching me a lesson that I have never before learned. I have to be flexible and learn to take life as it comes. I have recently learned that not everything in life is divided down the lines of right and wrong, as in the right way to do things(my way) versus the wrong way to do them(someone else's idea.) It is okay to have preferences, or to have something work a little better than something else, but it is also okay if someone doesn't butter their toast the "right" way. That is just how I prefer to do it(back when I ate toast with butter, that is.) A true but very simplified example.

I have made many plans in my life, in my motherhood specifically, on the "right" way I wanted to raise my kids. But somewhere along the line I realized that if I stick too stubbornly to the "right" way, I would be ignoring my kids' needs and what made them happy. So I am trying to focus first on their happiness, then making the plans afterward, instead of the other way around. And sometimes as a mom, you have to know when to just let go and have fun.

The trouble I have with this is my thinking. Someone I heard speak once said to "Quit your stinkin' thinkin'!" I believe that is impossible for me. Believe me, I have tried. But what I can do is plan to be flexible. If I have plans A, B, C-M, and so on, then I can have the appearance of being flexible for other people's sakes and still feel in control for my own sake. Because if plans A-L don't work out, I know plan M will come through. And if not, I can make up plan N at a moment's notice. I just have to plan for it.

P.S. I apologize for the lack of pictures of late, but it is due to some technical difficulties and I promise to be back soon with some good ones. Meaning, I will give the camera to L.