What if you shifted your attitude just for a moment, and felt grateful that you live in the midst of this family, with all of its stickiness and disorder? ~Denise Roy
My life is full of imperfect perfect moments.
The sink is full of dirty dishes and I should be happy we had food to eat and a family to eat it with.
When toys are strewn across the floor I should be happy that they were so focused on play.
When piles of clothes sit in a corner I wish I could remember how thrilled they were when they put on their third outfit for the day.
Perhaps an attitude adjustment is all it might take to turn this around. A new mindset that everything is perfect. A simple shift in perspective.
It’s not always easy to see chaos as being perfect.
It’s not always easy to smile through sleep deprivation, temper tantrums and picky eating phases. It’s not always natural to laugh at the potty training messes, the waking in the middle of the night for no reason or the brand new sweater that was lost. It’s often a struggle to deal with bedtime woes, personality clashes and the begging — oh, the begging.
Shift.
We lost our temper. We raised our voice. We yelled. We said things we wish we didn’t say. We did things we wish we didn’t do. We had a list of things we wanted to get done and couldn’t. We wanted things our way and that didn’t work out. We had expectations and had to toss them out the window.
Shift.
In a fit of anger, she told me she hates me, that she wishes I wasn’t her mother.
Shift.
In a groggy state of tired fussiness on the way home from a birthday party, she cried about not being able to see many birds today. With the sky pitch black and only the moon to shine above us, no consolation in sight for a birdless night.
Shift.
Every moment is perfect. Perfect being just the way they need to be right now. Perfect being full of mistakes. Perfect being huge lessons learned. Perfect being trial and error — mostly error. Perfect being oh so wrong that it hurts. Perfect being oddly funny but not so you have to stifle your tears of laughter.
Perfect being sweet, adorable and maddening all at once.
If every moment is perfect than all we need to do is Trust.
We need to remember that the children are, indeed, fine.
We just need to stay calm.
Maintain some ounce of energy in our day.
Notice the beauty of our life right now.
And be grateful for it all.
Grateful for the imperfect moments that, with the right amount of open eyes and open hearts, are absolutely, awesomely perfect — because they are all ours. All of them.
This reminds me of something I have to tell myself often: "Let it be." I didn't get done what I wanted to. Let it be. Life isn't going how I thought. Let it be. My son isn't sleeping when he's supposed to. Let it be. Let things be what they are and see where they go.
Exactly! But, as you said, keep reminding. : )
I need to remind myself of these moments a little more often, so thank you for the reminder
I NEED to do this! What a great perspective! I love this blog!
Thank you Shawn. Important intention. One for all of us.
No matter how crazy they are making you at least they are with you to make you crazy.
Thank you so much for your beautiful words! What an encouragement.
I love this. what a great way to look at things. thanks
Awesome post!
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Time and again I tell my friends who are complaining how things don’t go the way they want them to that it’s just a matter of changing their perspective.
There are situations that are beyond our control. But what we can control is our reaction to these situations. We can choose to feel defeated or we can choose to be hopeful. We can choose acceptance or we can be in denial.
We can choose to see every moment as perfect despite the small imperfections.
Great post here! Here’s to having a positive outlook in life!! More power
When gratitude and that shift in perspective comes from within it absolutely creates power and peace of mind. Thank you for your perspective.
Yes, it’s astounding how many times a day these moments can come up. Especially when I’m not focused on my kids and I’m trying to get something else done…must remember that I can’t stay in high-gear all day, one needs to SHIFT at times.
Exactly!! So hard for us to do, though.