Skip to main content

Progress is Progress

   Our little family moved into this sweet, two-bedroom townhome two months ago, at the beginning of November. When we moved, my goal was to be all settled in by Thanksgiving. We were not. So my new goal was to be all settled in by Christmas. We weren't by then, either.
  So my NEW new goal is this: I am going to pace myself. I will try to get a little done every day...and I will be satisfied with the little. Even if it takes me a month of Sundays to get one closet organized, I will not fret. I will not (anymore) go to bed stressed and overwhelmed by something as inconsequential as a closet, nor will I (again) stay up till four in the morning organizing that closet.

  Progress is progress. Even if it is just a little progress, it is still progress. Even if that progress looks like things getting messier before they can get cleaner, it is still progress. ANY progress is progress!

   There is a trick I discovered when I was 38 weeks pregnant. As I was eagerly (read: impatiently) awaiting the birth of my child, I kept myself busy getting things done that I knew I wouldn't do after he was born. I finally ordered prints of our wedding photos, sorted through baby clothes, cleaned out the closets. (I have a thing about closets being perfect. Well, I have a thing about lots of things being perfect. It borders on crazy.)
  And every morning I asked myself this question: If I went into labor tonight, what is the ONE THING I would REALLY WISH I had gotten done today?
  Then I did that thing.
  Often it was something kind of silly, like cleaning off the top of my dresser. But oh man, was I thankful I'd done that. Because I spent pretty much the first month of Judah's life sitting in bed nursing him non-stop, and looking up to see a a clean dresser top with a candle and my favorite jewelry box was a small thing that made a huge difference in the chaos.
  The day before I went into labor, that one thing was to take a long walk. I did. The day that I woke up at 3am having contractions, that one thing was I DO NOT CARE WHAT GETS DONE TODAY I JUST WANT THIS BABY TO HURRY UP AND GET OUT OF ME BECAUSE THIS ISN'T FUN ANYMORE. The day after he was born, that one thing was to sleep for a month. But anyways, you get the idea.

  Now, of course, the going-into-labor part of the question doesn't apply, but I still ask myself a similar question. At the end of the day, what will be important to be to have accomplished? Some days, honestly, the answer to that is just REST. Some days it is just laying in bed with my sweet son and laughing. That's valid. Those things count.
  Today I chose to spend my precious the-baby-is-happily-asleep, I-still-have-energy-from-the-morning-cup-of-coffee time on the bathroom cabinets because it is what I have fallen asleep wishing was done lately.

  And so today I have done one thing. There are many things I have not done. The kitchen is still a disaster, the laundry is still in the dryer, and for some reason the pan of pita chips that I accidentally (yes, accidentally) made yesterday is laying on the bedroom floor. Our bathroom cabinets, however, are a glorious sight to behold. It's small, but it counts. There is still a long to-do list, but I did one thing, and one thing is still something.


  Besides, so often it is those little things that brighten moments. And when I finish writing this and go get ready to leave the house, I will open up the bathroom drawer and see things that make me happy. I will see something beautifully organized, for starters. And I will also see the the lipstick tin, which has the same print that my curtains did when I was a little girl. I will see the tray from an old jewelry box full of old hairpins that I almost never wear, but love to look at. Those things- those incredibly little things- while not being important in the grand scale of my life, are still nice in the moment.
  I want to delight in the moment.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Conspiracy Theories

  I personally am not someone who has any great number of conspiracy theories. Yes, when a sudden Swine Flu epidemic broke out shortly after Obama was elected as president, I did wonder if the man-made disease had been released on-command.   But come on, when it comes to Obama, politics, and the American government, I am most certainly not the only suspicious person around.   There are lots of conspiracy theories, like the ones you learn about when you watch National Treasure. But the kind of conspiracy theories I’m prone to come up with are slightly less political and exciting.   I tend to watch my sister take a long drink from MY glass of water, and then say suddenly, “I see what you’re doing! You’re passive-aggressively trying to kill me by drinking my water, and slowly removing everything I need to live!” This is the sort of comment that leads to my sister’s laughter and to jokes about being passive-aggressive between a ninth grade boy and I, as he is constantly asking me for water...
Post a Comment
Read more

Please Don't Settle

  I wrote a song a few years ago called “Don’t Settle.” I wrote it for a friend of mine who had previously been planning on committing suicide. It is one of the only songs I’ve written that I felt came with a tune- the words came easily, and a tune came with them. It is one of the few songs I’ve written that I know God gave to me; He sang it to me softly and I simply wrote it down and remembered it.   Lately I have thought of perhaps revising the verses a little, but the chorus I will not change. It was the first piece that God gave me, and it is perfect. It goes like this:   “Don’t settle, please don’t give up Fight for only the true and beautiful Fight for only the true and beautiful Don’t settle, please don’t give up Fight for only the truth, I’ll fight for you I’ll fight for you.”   It was the cry of my heart for my friend, and I believe it is the cry of God’s heart for His children. I know that it is what I want Him to sing to me now, as I am reminding myself not to settle, not to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stuff I Wasn't Planning on Writing Today

At some point in the past few months my phone started notifying me of my Bible app's verse of the day. It was super annoying, because I'm prideful and I don't like to be helped or reminded- I can remember to read the Bible ON MY OWN, thank you very much. And, I don't want to read what cutesy verses you picked out, app, I'll go find something really amazing to read ON MY OWN. Get it? Hear me? I'm fine, on my own. Like I said, I am prideful. I would be more ashamed to admit it, except that I really want to make this clear: I AM SUCH A SINNER. I thought I'd been saying this, but maybe it hasn't been clear. My sin is like, all over the place. I sin every day. It's usually based in pride or selfishness. -BUT-   My sin is not the end of the story. God was merciful towards me, showed me my sin, and saved me. He has caused change in my heart and my life that I never could have accomplished on my own- and I know that with certainty, because I DID try on...
Post a Comment
Read more