Things To Let Go in 2011

Tell me I'm not the only one for whom lists of things to start doing or to do better is extremely overwhelming.  However, as daunting as it feels, I still have quite an urgent desire to reflect and examine, and then to go forth in new and better ways.  So, I give you my top five

"Things to Let Go in 2011"

1.  Documentation.  I don't have to take pictures or video of my child every day.  Or even every week.  Spencer will still feel loved.  He might even get more face time.

2.  Expecting others to be what I expect them to be.  I'm not the boss of them (even though maybe I should be...)  See?  It leads to erroneous thinking.

3.  My own timelines regarding childbearing, home improvement, or self-improvement.  The more I know myself, the more I'm amazed at all of my expectations.  Wow.  Just wow.  I have thousands of expectations that I didn't even know I had.  Just ask my husband.    And, no, expectations are not necessarily bad or wrong (though many of mine probably are), but when things don't happen that way, it sets in motion quite a treading of water to try to get it all "under control."  How long can you tread water?  Not nearly as long as a lifetime.

4.  The idea that I need to get finished with something quickly and efficiently so that I can move on to the next thing.  That thing I'm in the middle of, it's my life.  I hurry through it all the time.  I already feel as if I've neglected to "live" much of my life.  I am so blessed to be doing exactly what I've always wanted to do--being a wife and a mother--so dishes, and laundry, and sick days, and tantrums are life.  Those things are not something to be hurried through or wished away.  How much could I teach Spencer by example through embracing each and every day in all its imperfections and disappointments?  I'm still his mom, I still love him--throwing up or throwing a tantrum.  I'm to treat him with love and respect and to train him to love God and others with all that he is.  Every day.  No matter what.

5.  Anger that crops up when real life is lived--more on that later.  But I want to let it go every day.  It definitely holds me back and threatens to intrude on all the joy and wonder that exists for me to experience.

That's not an overwhelming list of things not to do, right?  My hope for this coming year might best be summed up with this picture.

I'm striving for that sort of run-giggling-with-your-eyes-closed approach to life.  Care to join me?