How to juggle it all

A few years ago we had a wonderful LDS Missionary that worked in our neighborhood: Elder Justin Rae from Gainesville, Florida. He would stop by on occassion and give us a little lesson about something to make our lives happier. But one day he taught me a lesson that he wasn't intending to teach but it has stayed with me ever since. It was about juggling. It seems that to be a missionary you have to be able to juggle. Who knew that it was part of the job description? My own son practiced up before he left for his two years of service in Taiwan and he wrote home to tell us that many of the missionaries in the MTC (missionary training center) could also juggle.

So on one of those wonderful visits from the missionaries, Elder Rae was trying to help my son Tim learn how to juggle. Tim really wanted to learn and carried 3 hacky sacks wherever he went in case the desire to juggle came over him. LOL.

As he watched Tim struggle to learn he gave him some advice. He said, "Don't watch your hands; look up and your hands will know what to do." It seemed like a strange way to work since you wouldn't be able to see what you were doing, but he tried it and found that he could catch even though he wasn't watching his hands.

That one sentence stuck with me as I contemplated juggling my life. I have so much to do in my life that I can't seem to juggle it all. I wondered if that same advice would work for me. Finally, I got it! His advice was exactly the answer to how we can juggle all that is required of us.

I just wasn't looking up was my problem. I needed to look up, wayyyyyy up. I started looking to Heaven instead of watching what I was doing. When I stopped focusing on how overwhelmed I was and stopped worrying and fearing that I couldn't handle things then I got into the flow. When Heaven directs what 'balls' I should keep in the air, then there is enough of me to go around. When I focus on what I want to do, then I start dropping things. It isn't always easy to stay in that flow. I've picked up way too may balls that I thought I needed to but found out that it wasn't what I was supposed to be doing. I also have forgotten to pick up some of the important things that I was supposed to juggle. More and more I look up when making decisions about what to spend my time on. I'm amazed at how much more I get done and how much more at peace I am when I stop looking at my hands and gaze upward for direction.

Yes, from the outside, my life may look like a circus sometimes, but it is so rewarding when I actually get everything in sync. I used to think that as a mom I just needed more hands, but then I realized that I would have that much more to do so I'm very thankful for just 2!!

What flavor are you?

After a very long hiatus I'm back. I've been inspired by some great family bloggers so I must repent and get back to writing down those late night thoughts that come when everyone else is in bed and I have time to process the days events. It's then that I see patterns and 'learnings' in my world.
Tonight's learning is about marinating. I'm not actually someone who does much marinating in my kitchen, (although I do tend to marinate in my thoughts) but a wonderful analogy came to my mind tonight.
When you marinate something you put it in a sauce with a flavor that you want that item to assume. You leave it there and after a while you come back to it and hope it has taken on the flavor of the sauce. You would never put it in a sauce that tasted horrible because then your food would take on that flavor.
I realized how often that we are marinating ourselves in something, but don't expect that we will take on the 'flavor' of that thing we are in. So, I wonder, What flavor am I? What have I been marinating in. If you are in it you can't help but smell like it and taste like it right? So, logically I should easily be able to tell what I've been soaking in by the end product. When you are around some people can't you just tell what they've been marinating in? Sometimes I can just look at someone and know what they are 'into'.
As I think about choices for music, movies, reading material I realize that I don't want to spend any time in any stinky marinades. I don't want to watch movies that have 'just one bad part' because that will affect my 'flavor'. I even think that reading something or watching something that is so-so but doesn't have any bad parts is also something I want to avoid. It would be like marinating in just water. It won't add to my flavor and would be a waste of precious time. I want to only read, watch and listen to that which adds some good aroma and taste to the palette of my life.
What about the people we hang out with (or our kids hang out with?) How much do they affect us? If they are making bad choices and we think we can handle it, is that true? How long before their choices start to affect us and our 'flavor'?
I believe this also applies to what we think about, talk about and dream about. Do we constantly think about a past hurt to the point that it affects not just us but everyone around us? They start to smell our yucky marinade and can't help but be affected by it. Don't we all know someone who can't forgive and they are cankered by their wounds? If you marinate something long enough it becomes permanently changed and you can't wash it off. Imagine putting an item soaked in something bitter into your sweet light flavored dish. It would ruin it. So do those stories that we continue to tell of how we are the victim and were hurt by ___. The more we tell the story the more we soak it in. If we can forgive and let it go we get the sweet peace that come as a by-product of forgiveness. Peace is a wonderful marinade.
To those who say that "it doesn't affect me" or "its just one bad scene, but it was pretty timid" I would say, "Whatever you marinate in soaks into you and eventually you will smell/taste just like it". What flavor are you???