Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Peace in the Middle of the Mess

by Kelly



The pie has been eaten, the cranberry sauce has been thrown out, and we are completely sick of turkey sandwiches.  Yep…Thanksgiving is over and we are now ‘officially’ into the holiday season.  Except that in my neck of the woods, autumn has been late to arrive and we are just now into the peak season of color.  Sunday’s walk around the neighborhood was an eclectic mix of fallen leaves and pumpkins and Christmas lights and inflatable snowman globes. 


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I had every intention of getting all of my Christmas decorations put up inside over the break.  However, those plans did not take into consideration the swift, unexpected chest cold that I was hit with.  Nor did they take into account an afternoon Gilmore Girls revival marathon.

Just like with the seasons, everything about my life right now feels like an overlapping, mixed up, mess of things.


But surprisingly, I’m not stressed out.

I should be stressed…I keep asking myself “Why aren’t you more stressed about this?”  But really, I’m just not that concerned about it.

The thing is, I don’t want to live like a stressed out maniac anymore.  I don’t want to suck the joy out of my life and everyone else’s by trying to make sure things are perfect.  It’s just that simple. I don’t want a life that depends on things being neat and tidy.  Because newsflash! – that’s never going to happen.  If I am waiting to be happy until all of the loose end of my life are tied up…if I need all the messy bits of life to cleaned up before I can experience joy and peace…well, I’m going to sorely disappointed.

Because that’s just not what my life looks like.

My life is messy and and complicated and uncertain and beautiful.  And I am totally OK with it.


I think if anything, that is the greatest gift of the practice of gratitude…to accept and embrace this life with all of its imperfections.  And I can’t think of a better, more open-hearted way to enter into the holiday season. 

So I’m not going stress about my dining room table.  I know that here in the next few days I’ll get the dishes put away and the storage boxes back down into the basement.  The Christmas decorations will go up and all will be well.  But I am going to happy – I am choosing to be happy – in the middle of the mess.

Until next time.


Kelly

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes to all that. I've learned to embrace my messes. Perfection is just not a priority in my life. Good for you and Happy Holidays!

Dotti said...

Reading this post brought back memories. We'd just taken our daughter to college and when we returned home, my first priority was to clean her room to my specifications. I spent the whole weekend bringing order to the mess. (How could there be such a mess left behind when she took so much with her?) When I was finished, I sat down on the bed and cried buckets. The room was clean but my daughter and her splendid mess were six hours away at college.

Moral of the story: neat and clean is not all it's cracked up to be. Thanks for reminding us of this, Kelly!

heyjudephotography said...

A good lesson Kelly, one which I'm slowly getting better about. I think the older we get the more we can realize the important"stuff". And a clean house is not always the important stuff. XO

diane said...

LOL....I've learned to embrace my messes. Who cares, right? But thanks for reminding me once again to slow down.
Nice post.
diane @ thoughts&shots

AFishGirl said...

You rock, Kelly. It's true, all you say. Stress needs our permission to come in, just as it can heed a "not welcome" sign and we can choose to feel peace and joy and gratitude. Real life is... real. It's not like the magazines would dupe you into longing after. They're photoshopped. Ha. Real life is gloriously real. Here's to embracing it, wherever we find ourselves.

terriporter said...

Here I am again bringing up the rear and commenting a day late. But I know you of anyone will understand. This crazy time of year leaves us all with too much to do and too little time to do it. But I just couldn't miss saying how much I love this post! It so perfectly dovetails my Monday post -- finding joy even in the middle of the messes! Hope we are both able to do just that and I you're feeling better. Take care, my friend.

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