It's been so long since I've been a regular blogger. I still write. I write on my fiction. I write my intentions down most days, and journal when I can. Mostly I drive down Winton Road in Cincinnati, or Estes Road in Nashville. I listen to podcasts when I feed the horses on the farm and I sometimes drink red wine when I think about how badly I want the house to sell. The other day there was a guest speaker on one of my favorite podcasts talking about purposeful uncomfortableness. Something he creates for himself, and his family. He was currently creating it by having recently moved his all five of them from a farm in Vermont to Singapore, where they were all learning Mandarin. On a lesser scale, I'm sure people might think we were familiar with this type of thing.. and it didn't dawn on me until I heard the man say it. This is one of those years for us. Like 2011.. 2011 was tricky but I learned..
I've begun to mark my years in seasons. People have asked me before if Grace just practices and competes from Jan- May. Unless you are competing internationally, gymnastics starts anew at the end of April, when meets come to a close and new skills begin and new levels are announced in the summer. This season I've seen my girls push themselves and push themselves for different reasons. I've watched Grace cry from the core of her sensitive heart. Watched her learn about mental strength as well as physical, thinking hang on, what you're learning today is going to help you twenty years from now, the next day she picks herself up and dust herself off. Life lesson. What can I do? Nothing. Sit and watch the wheels turn, the growth happen.
I've watched Holly listen so hard to what Shawn and I are saying and saying and saying and hit the books in the farmhouse bedroom morning after morning proving that she's ready for SCPA, watching her develop her writing like a pro, draw and paint hours every day for kicks, prove that she can focus and get it done. I've watched her turn around and sabotage herself the way teens do.. the way we all do, and it's no fun.
I've gotten emails from Mariama in the middle of the day asking me from three hundred miles away "Can she do this at school? What about that? " I've watched her help with the apartments, ride in the car through traffic and two states to spend the weekend with her sisters, watched the type A get to her, the grades, obsessing. So I take her to Janie and David's to hang with the crazy adults, eat dinner and laugh at how we were as teenagers. We walk to the grocery store together like it's an episode of One Day at a Time.. she is a survivor, a thriver. I read the comments from her teachers. Does she even she herself this way? God I hope so.
Purposeful uncomfortableness, I am grateful for it. At times, I feel my children are mental giants, and look up to their strength. I've never learned so much from them, enlightening. They teach me to practice what I preach.. and you know I can preach..When I can't seem to write 1500 words EVERYDAY, figure out my photography business in a new city, drag myself a few miles around the lake, it looms over me, like a mom who says incessantly Did you brush your teeth? I want to say how lucky I feel that my kids are surrounded by such decent human beings. It does in fact take a village. God does it ever, but I fully believe that you have to choose the right one. That one little step in the right direction will change your life. Every day I'm reminded of that when I look at the faces of my girls and hard working husband. I am proud of all of us, even our baby steps. so DREAM BIG everyone. In a world that offers it up, why do anything else? I look forward to Kings Island, visits from friends and family! board games, the Creamy dip, and the 17 year cicadas. All of it, together. Bring on the adventure Cincinnati!
I've watched Holly listen so hard to what Shawn and I are saying and saying and saying and hit the books in the farmhouse bedroom morning after morning proving that she's ready for SCPA, watching her develop her writing like a pro, draw and paint hours every day for kicks, prove that she can focus and get it done. I've watched her turn around and sabotage herself the way teens do.. the way we all do, and it's no fun.
I've gotten emails from Mariama in the middle of the day asking me from three hundred miles away "Can she do this at school? What about that? " I've watched her help with the apartments, ride in the car through traffic and two states to spend the weekend with her sisters, watched the type A get to her, the grades, obsessing. So I take her to Janie and David's to hang with the crazy adults, eat dinner and laugh at how we were as teenagers. We walk to the grocery store together like it's an episode of One Day at a Time.. she is a survivor, a thriver. I read the comments from her teachers. Does she even she herself this way? God I hope so.
Purposeful uncomfortableness, I am grateful for it. At times, I feel my children are mental giants, and look up to their strength. I've never learned so much from them, enlightening. They teach me to practice what I preach.. and you know I can preach..When I can't seem to write 1500 words EVERYDAY, figure out my photography business in a new city, drag myself a few miles around the lake, it looms over me, like a mom who says incessantly Did you brush your teeth? I want to say how lucky I feel that my kids are surrounded by such decent human beings. It does in fact take a village. God does it ever, but I fully believe that you have to choose the right one. That one little step in the right direction will change your life. Every day I'm reminded of that when I look at the faces of my girls and hard working husband. I am proud of all of us, even our baby steps. so DREAM BIG everyone. In a world that offers it up, why do anything else? I look forward to Kings Island, visits from friends and family! board games, the Creamy dip, and the 17 year cicadas. All of it, together. Bring on the adventure Cincinnati!
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| I'm just throwing this in because it's cute. |
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