A Few Things I've Learned the Last Few Weeks

Nuggets. That's what they are. They come when I'm quietly listening and sometimes they come in the wonderful craziness that is my life. I create the quiet and I create the crazy.

I love mangos. So yummy, so good but a little difficult to cut. Once you understand how the seed is shaped you can get so much more of the yummy fruit in your tummy where it belongs instead of left on that darn seed. The mango seed is flat and so you cut it differently than say a nectarine, also one of my favorite fruits.

A child's spirit is like a mango seed. It's shaped differently and once you know how it's shaped you can get so much more from it. So much more goodness and you can enjoy it instead of fighting against it. No matter how hard you try you cannot cut a mango the way you cut a nectarine. The seed won't let you. Once I realized this, I noticed I was trying to get things from my children's spirits but I was going about it my way, forcing it, and getting frustrated when it didn't come out the way I wanted. I'm working to understand the shape of their spirit and work with it instead of against it.

Here's another one. Sometimes we don't get what we want and it's a good thing. Sometimes we're not ready for what we want. We can't handle it and God knows.

I want to remodel my house so bad, you know, fix up the bathrooms, replace the flooring, get a new driveway, take out a huge tree in our yard, stuff like that. Nothing major, but all of those take money, money we don't have right now. If we did have the money and we did start all of the projects it would take me away from what I really need to be doing right now, enjoying my children and learning with them, fulfilling all of my various commitments, spending time with my husband, family and friends. Taking care of others. If all of those projects were happening, none of the other things would get done.

It's not the right time right now so I will be thankful for my bathroom with the original tile from 1974, I will be thankful for the huge mulberry tree in our yard and it's roots that are lifting my sidewalk and driveway, I will be thankful for my little bit of carpet in the living room that no matter how many times I shampoo it, it still looks dirty, I will be thankful for my dining room floor that needs to be swept and mop on a daily basis since it shows every speck of dirt.

It's all good and we can have it all. Just not all at once.