Graduation

Well as you move through life's little steps it is much like graduating. You take each new challenge or adventure and start taking one step at a time. I have had lots and lots of challenges and adventures. I find that how I define that particular situation immediately determines how I will attack it.

As a challenge, it is instantly a struggle, uphill battle, migraine causing event. Doesn't it seem hard just to say the word "challenge"? Even the industrial world has eliminated the word for more palatable phrases like "improvement opportunities" or "ah ha moments". Those don't sound as daunting, that is a fact. Truth be known, I don't like to think on this side of my brain at all.

But I live in the world of intentional resistance. I like adventures. I have visions of a trip to the airport in a speeding taxi, discovering new foods that have grown in old containers in the back of the fridge, travels to third world countries with nothing but a duffel bag and three words of Telugu, travels to ANY country that does not use electricity, getting lost in the town where I live! Lots of events all take on a fun and positive bent when I label them as adventures!

Some of my best adventures happen without leaving the house. You know the kind. You are certain you put something in a spot and alas it has gone missing. Where did it go? Who took it there? No one but you is home but "someone" has taken the item to a new and exciting location! It is like that missing sock, the one you put in the washer that never makes it to the dryer? Where did it go?! As an aside, I keep all those odd bad boys and eventually I have a new pair:-) That will show those run away garments.

I take other more personal events and apply the same adventure mentality. A parents memory loss, in a way sad, and yet there is always an unexpected humor in the ease at which they enjoy their day. Happy to play BINGO and sneak cookies from their dresser with a big smile over these simple pleasures. A child's behavioral issues, which are serious and in need of discipline, but attached to that are earnest prayers asking God to help him to do really well so he can live until Friday and get all his things back, but especially Barney. Or the sorrow of loss that is so tragic, yet it revives hours and hours of joyful memories. These become cherished adventures.

I could get angry, depressed, frustrated, weighed down with sorrow, but I choose not to give life to the negative. I move through those normal emotions. I look at the other side. I know that bad things happen, but I believe that good comes from the crisis. I cling to that. Prosper not harm, very important and reliable words. Because I know who leads I can relax and follow, and enjoy the adventures every day.

Wings

I feel like I am flying most days, and that is without a license and occasionally with the wrong glasses on. Ha. No worry, I simply remember that the objects in the mirror are larger than they appear, and that means that I am actually in your airspace or possibly your lap...hmm

I find that life does seem to move faster now than when I was younger. But I have also determined that it is because there is so much more to do than when I was younger. When I was 7 for example, I had hours to pull the legs off the daddy-long-legged spider (Sorry PETA) or to argue over that one page of homework. HOURS! But now my MINUTES are filled. I have dozens of activities to complete in that same period of time. So I have concluded that it does not actually GO faster, it does not GO anywhere! The schedule is just much more ROBUST!

Life may at times even resemble a robust cup of coffee. It can have some smooth sips and yet a few bitter ones. It may need cream or sugar at times as well. Or flavoring added to make it enjoyable at all. That being said, you take the now perfectly blended cup of java and carry it on to the plane of life and you are set to take wing.

As a pilot you map out your flight plan and get approval from the tower....when is the last time you checked with the tower to see if you were even taking the right trip? Then you do the preflight to make sure you have all the proverbial ducks in a row...fresh coffee, condiments, pillows and magazines. If all is good then you are approved for take off. If the ducks fly true, your flight is without event. You reach your destination and are free to egress.

I think life gets away from us when we don't take the time to check with the tower, we don't have a master plan, maybe we don't even have the goal or purpose. It is then that we end up with no time to spare, nothing accomplished, out of fuel and exhausted beyond our delicate years. No amount of good or bad coffee will bring you back from that either.

SO, take up flying. As you plan for the day, take your lead from your favorite airline. Get out the flight plan. Prepare, plot out the route and get the "go ahead" from the tower! Proverbs 18:10

Out There

I have spent a few months away from the keyboard and have really missed it. I realized a few things over the past few weeks that were further confirmed in the conversation of a dear friend. Life presents with so much material, good or not so good, that it is a waste to let it all go unnoticed.


I have spent the past couple of months marching through hospitals, doctors offices, graduation ceremonies, grocery stores and so much more. I have sacrificed form for necessity so to speak. And so I am forced to write a poem to express my thoughts in my mid-year of my mid-life year.....figure that out!

Roses are red,
Bougainvilleas are pink,
Caring for others
Can be crazy I think.

Will I remember to bake
clean or to shop
Or all the appointments
Ha, I think NOT.

I forget the cereal and
milk and the eggs
I am not even sure if
I have shaved my own legs!

But it is all good
I love the honor at hand
My family and friends are
the best in the land.

So there it is. I am ready to renew my conversation in text. I am certain that I am not alone in the frenzy of life. Another dear friend has the same load and challenge to stay organized, put together and she still looks great! So my assessment is we are more alike than unalike. Thank goodness you all can relate and understand. If you can't you are either under 30, not a parent or live in a remote corner of the world with limited contact with humans.