The more years and experiences I add to my own personal tree of life, the more I believe that perspective is everything. How we choose to look at life has such a grand effect on, well...everything.
I have a dear friend who is in one of those "valleys" in life right now...just one thing after another. During a phone call last week she asked me, "I mean, really, how do you DO everything you do?" She mentioned that she was having a hard time keeping up with the laundry let along chasing after her precious and well loved munchkins.
This is where PERSPECTIVE comes in.
Lets just keep it real for a moment or two as I describe my "oh so well-ordered" life...feel free to smile, giggle and just laugh along if any of this sounds familiar. :)
From the outside looking in, I am the understanding wife to a husband who is an executive for a high tech company. (Meaning he is either working or on the road 85% of his time.) I am the devoted mother of a 6, 8 and 16 year old. I volunteer frequently in their classrooms and chauffeur them between tutoring, football, horse lessons, tennis and science clubs. I am the owner and designer behind my company, Sweet Pea Ink. (Meaning it's a one person show from website design to product design to delivery.) In my free time I am an avid tennis player and scrapbooker/paper crafter. I also love to cook and try out new recipes. :)
Wow! Yep, that's my life alright! Now hold on while we change perspectives just a bit...
I also have a 18 yr. old cat who I spent the last week giving subcutaneous saline injections to as her kidney's were shutting down. (We sent her to kitty heaven a few days ago.) I am currently walking around with a huge bruise on my right arm from the IV I received when I was in pain from newly discovered gallstones. My right knee is bandaged up as 2 weeks ago during one of my fierce tennis matches I bit it big time on the court and left blood and skin everywhere. I can honestly not remember the last day I did not have a laundry pile in my home. I FREQUENTLY forget things...like the right day for the field trip I'm supposed to chaperone at school. My children RARELY make it to bed on time. We eat take out or in a restaurant at least twice per week. Sometimes I go TWO days without showering. I make my bed 1 out of 7 days (and that one day is just to please my husband.) More often than not, only the first floor of my home is presentable.
PERSPECTIVE.
I actively choose each and every day to love my life. Both the take out dinner days and the homeade, to die for, french onion soup days. (And this recipe is The Bomb.)
I actively choose to believe in myself and my skills as a mother - from the days one of the little ones receives an award to the days when the oldest has had a major stumble in life. And yes, I know how painful this feels.
I DO WHAT I CAN. Not perfect. Not better than others. Just what I can, on that day, at that particular moment in time. And believe me, it can vary. And it IS enough.
I'm commited to constantly learning more, becoming more, growing more.
And I do most importantly believe that without the valleys in life, we would never be able to appreciate when we are lucky enough to have those joyful moments at the top.
Try today, and each day, to shift your perspective just slightly. You never know what you might see.
xoxo
Cristina