If you don't follow me on social media, let me catch you up. What? You don't follow me on social media? Please, rectify the situation as soon as possible.
Here are a few happy places to find me:
Oh wait, I just got sidetracked! And that, my friends, is exactly what 2015 has held for me. Sort of. You see, a year ago, I had the grandiose idea that since we've always dreamed of living in the mountains, we should start taking the steps to living that dream. I had plans for 2015, and none of them involved selling our house, buying a fixer upper in the mountains, moving, and living in an incredibly beautiful space in a tiny house! That, my friends, was supposed to happen in 2016 or 2017. Now, before you think I am complaining, let me assure you that I am incredibly happy with our situation. But so many of my other plans, they did not happen, and that's okay!
I had a lot of really great intentions with this move, and prior to the move, and they all kind of went by the wayside. To be honest, I've really been beating myself up over my failure to do EVERYTHING I'd planned. I thought about giving you a list, but then I realized it would only serve to bring up my stress meter. What I realized is that be thinking about everything I didn't do, I was paralyzing myself from doing all the things I can do, right now!
And that's the relevant point today. I think we all go through seasons of paralysis because we realized that we bit off more than we can chew, and we have no idea how to get back to normal. I watched my plate get bigger and bigger, and kept wondering how I was going to eat it all. But here's the great thing about your plate of life. It's YOUR plate. You get to decide what's on it, and if you put too much on it, you can empty it off. In my case, I decided that the date of January 1, 2015 is a completely arbitrary (although somewhat convenient) way of determining what will and won't happen in our lives. So I hit the reset button. And now, I'm saying that all the things I intended to do, it's okay that I didn't do *cough* many of them.
But here's what happens AFTER you hit the reset button. You sit down and think about your priorities. Moving forward, what do you want to do? It doesn't matter what you didn't accomplish. What matters is, looking at tomorrow, what can you accomplish?
So here I am, blogging about stuff I didn't intend to blog about, because it was never on the plan. But you know, it's okay. My plan changed this year. And I lovingly accept that in myself. I hope, that whatever plan you got off track from, that you can lovingly say, "it's okay." Because it is.
I did a piece in my art journal today, and I started with one intention, but it became something else. Interesting, since that seems to be the theme of my life. The funny thing is, I love what I did in my art journal far more than what I'd originally planned. Sometimes, letting go and accepting where life takes you instead of drowning in disappointment can bring you to a beautiful place.
How have you dealt with being sidetracked in life? Is there one thing you can do right now to get back on track?
4 comments:
As I read through this, I thought: "Why is she blaming herself for life happening??" But then I realized I do that ALL the time.
Hello, Pot. I'm Kettle.
It's funny, this God Complex we create. We unconsciously believe that, if we make a plan and write it down that nothing should be able to thwart that plan. And if something does, it must be our personal failure. Not true. None of it.
Life happens. We are not God. And that, as you say, is perfectly okay.
Exactly, Tanya! It's amazing how much we kick ourselves for things not going according to OUR plan, but it's funny how God's plan just sort of happens anyway.
Yep! I keep piling things on and they're so good and healthy and I don't know what to eat first. So I nibble at this and nibble at that. And my plate still seems like I haven't touched it. So for today, I'm focusing on a couple of things on my plate and saving the others for leftovers. :)
My desire to write a few shorter stories takes a back seat to my longer works. Life's issues can take my "extra" time and cut it to pieces. However, I do pray over what I write and know that it's okay. Inside these little frustrations, I think we come to remember it's all about His perfect timing.
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