Very wise words not spoken by me but by someone who knows from experience. Seriously. What is an emergency. Would saying "don't cry over spilled milk" be the old way of saying this? Perhaps the *crazy* word might be where we drive ourselves as not everything IS an emergency. When we had one kid or perhaps two and we don't teach THEM that not everything is an emergency and then more kids come along and soon everyone is thinking everything is an emergency, then this is a recipe for crazy. If I am not worried about the crumbs on the table right now it is because.....it is not an emergency. If I learn not to freak out over crumbs, then when my 6 month old has an allergic reaction I will be able to handle the actual emergency. THAT is an emergency but even then, staying in control is VERY important.
The perk of having nine or however many kids (not a contest or my salvation), is that there are so many things to be done, so many things which could be treated like an emergency, soon none of it is an emergency but simply the next thing we decide to give our attention to. Why am I sitting in this chair while weeds are choking out the garlic??? Because it isn't an emergency but hopefully I get to it soon. Why does it not give me an anxiety attack that the baby's diaper is looking a little ooshie??? Because I um.....know it is good for 25 to 30 pounds??? Or....I guess I must be neglectful or.....someone might have just spilled some milk and I am deciding if that is worth crying over???? I don't know. Calm. Learn how to chill and be quiet. I don't have to connect with people all the time. It is okay.
If I am crazy or anyone else is crazy, that isn't who they are. It is just how they might be tripping through life right now. Crazy can be quietly containing crazy inside. You never can tell. Sure, there are many who are *crazy* right now but building a sense of peace in not engaging in every movement and sentence uttered by the rest of the world is totally fine too. Perhaps that is the art of being private and feeling the need to throw up everything on everyone. Take care of those first vocations, mind your own vocation as a basic rule of thumb and happiness, and if you are *crazy* do what you can to take care of yourself. Take care of yourself. Yep. Go to bed, don't have anxiety attacks over the holes in your sons jeans which went in public today....it is okay. Who cares. You don't have to care about that. It isn't an emergency.
With milk at $3.70+ a gallon, I don't just cry when it spills, I . . . glower menacingly. There is remarkably less milk spilled around here than before. :D
ReplyDeleteBut I get what you're saying. I've learned to recognize my battles. I'm never going to beat back tomato blight, so, tra la, tra la! :P