Shoved to Them
As I round the corner toward the finish line of my book’s rough draft, I’ve been a little surprised by my own elation. I’d forgotten how it felt to set and then meet a seemingly impossible goal. Write a book in a month? Done in 3 days. I’m not even kidding!!!! I know that the next couple of months will be filled with the much less fun task of editing and refining, but I’m ready to be able to declare the rough draft complete.
I haven’t felt such a sense of accomplishment since 2005 when I ran the marathon in Oklahoma City. There’s just something about climbing a giant mountain which makes me feel even more alive. Which is why I’m surprised I don’t do this but once every seven years. (I’m doing it more often from now on!)
There is a tendency among moms, especially those of us who stay at home, to allow ourselves to fade into beige. We put the wants, needs, and dreams of everyone else so far to the front of our lives that we begin to fade away into the background. Before we realize what has even happened, the girl with dreams has become another mom with a to-do list and a mountain of laundry to iron and fold.
We’re doing a disservice to ourselves and to our children when we let ourselves melt away into the scenery. We are teaching our families that somehow we are secondary members and that dreaming ends when childhood does. What a fantastic lie this is.
Why do we want our children to see a model of adulthood which is bland and boring? Why is it okay with us to spend our one life only on the mundane? Are there no more mountains for us to climb? Have we run out of dreams? Why are we okay in living in a world without color?
That’s what I’m asking of you today. Dream a little dream for yourself and write it down. Then figure out how to make it happen. There is great joy in the journey. There is happiness in the trying. It’s the difference between beige and technicolor. Live your life in color. It’s so much better that way.
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