Living Well

I am tired. Down to my bones tired.

I am weary. I am exhausted.

I am running on empty, but life hasn't stopped. There are still people to be cared for, bills to be paid, meals to cook, life to be lived.

Most of us are living with a distorted idea of what a well lived life actually means.

It is not about doing it all. It is about balance. It is about accepting the ebb and flow of a life in motion. It is about self awareness; knowing when to say yes and when to say no.

On any given day my life may look like any of these....

I get the office work done.

I clean the house.

I cook all three meals.

I craft with the kids.

I read books.

I snuggle.

I attend school events.

I teach Sunday School.

I do yard work.

I write.

I feed bottle calves.

I do laundry.

I wash dishes.

And on and on and on.....

I do all of these things. But NEVER do I do them all on the same day.

Some days the office work is done, somedays the house is clean-ish. Somedays I cook all three meals. Somedays I sit and color with the kids.

Somedays the house falls apart. Somedays the bills pile up. Somedays someone pees on the floor. Somedays we eat pre-packaged food for every meal. Somedays I just want to give up.

Every single day I tell my family I love them.

I never have a day where everything gets done. It would be impossible. Life is not about doing it all. Its about balancing it out and doing what you can, the best you can. I work on a priority system, or what most people would call triage.

1. Which project, person, event needs to absolutely be taken care of?
2. What would I like to get done?
3. What can wait?

On days that I am getting office work done, there is often leftovers or frozen pizza. When I sit and craft with the kids, the housework doesn't get done and it is a mess. Sundays we almost always have take out for lunch, because getting everyone to church early for me to teach and get the kids to sit through a sermon is all I can manage.

I break down.

I cry.

I try again.

I fail.

I succeed.

I swear.

I apologize.

I learn from my mistakes.

I celebrate my accomplishments.

There are seven days in a week and I use them all. Somedays I am really proud of myself, other days I am frustrated and want to scream. But I have learned that most things have a timeline that they have to be completed by, and until it needs to be done, I just check off the other things on my list that DO need to be done.

I don't do it all.

Neither will you. You will have days when it feels like things are under control and days where it all feels unmanageable.

Don't be so hard on yourself. Give yourself some grace to try again tomorrow.

It all evens out in the end. If something didn't get finished today, there is always tomorrow. If there isn't a tomorrow, it won't matter that the dishes were left dirty in the sink.

It will matter that you told someone you loved them.

It will matter that you took the time to look someone in the eye while they were talking to you.

It will matter that you took time to breathe and enjoy the world around you, rather than rush through it to check another item off your to-do list.

I get it, I do. It is hard. I am busy and overwhelmed. Lots of days I feel like I am treading water and I am barely keeping my head above it all.

But when it gets to that point, that is when I have to remind myself of what really matters; what really needs to be done versus what I want to get done.

Your life looks vastly different than mine, and there is no magic bullet or right answer that will make it easier. But maybe it's not about making it easier; maybe it is about enjoying all of it. The good and the bad.

Let go of expectations of what a perfectly balanced life would look like. Look around you. Look at the people in your life that need you. Look them in the eye, listen to them. Show up for work and do your best while you are there. Give grace to others because they might be going through a rough time.

It is up to each of us to accept that this is our life and to find joy in the everyday, mundane, hard stuff, just as much as we find joy in the easy, pleasurable, fun stuff.

Here's to another day, may we embrace it with gratitude.

With love,
Me

Source