Number 7

This morning I got up for a conference call and left Becky and Audrey sleeping while I did so. I took the call and then tried to get some scheduling done before they woke up. Becky had a sleepless night with Audrey and I wanted them to be able to get the rest in which they needed. At 9am I heard Audrey talking in her bed so I quietly went up stairs and rescued her and brought her back down to watch Max and Ruby. I gave her a sippy cup with some juice and threw a blanket over her and she snuggled under it ready to watch "Mimi". I thought that I needed to make her some breakfast so I started to prepare some oatmeal since it was a little chilly.

As I waited for the water to boil I started reading a paper that Becky had taken out of a magazine and posted on the fridge. The title is 10 Thoughts on Whole Living and it gives you some things to think about. When Becky put this up the other day I joked with her that it seemed odd that she was putting it up. We went through a couple of them that she liked, but to be honest I didn't read the 10 thoughts. I found my self reading them this cold quiet morning.

1. Allow yourself the chance to really savor the moment.

2. Optimism isn't just a shift in perspective. It's an act of bravery.

3. Only you can decide the path worth taking.

4. Don't wait for your mood to change; take action despite it.

5. Approach gift shopping as an opportunity to honor the people you really love.

6. Rather than search for a single miracle food, strive for a varied and delicious diet.

7. You can't grow without pushing your limits.

8. Stop worrying about getting sick; focus on your health instead.

9. Don't believe what you hear. Life is good.

10. No one knows what the future will bring. Put your energy into now.

When I reached number 7 I stopped and reread it. I started thinking about the last few months and where we are right now physically and spiritually. You can't grow without pushing your limits. Over the last few months we have gone through some tough experiences and Becky and I have discussed many different times why we are here and where we will be in the future. We figure out where we are going to be in a couple of weeks and start moving that way only to find out that there is something else we need to do or a different direction is in store. We are constantly striving to get out of this hole that we have dug for ourselves but the more we climb the farther away the end seems.

One constant thread running through these discussions are how blessed we are. We are not in the house that we wanted to be and although we have cut every bill we still have bills piling up. With this said we still feel so blessed and we can feel the hand of the lord in our lives. We don't have everything that we once had but we have so many things to be thankful for. The church, our families, each other just to name a few.

7 seems to have become our mantra over the past few months after losing a job, leaving our gorgeous house and moving somewhere we didn't ever want to be. You can't grow without pushing your limits has to be the single most important piece of advice we have gotten over the last few months. How can we know who we are and what we are capable of if we don't push ourselves to the limits and endure to the end.

We are going to get out of this hole and when we do we are going to look back and see the progress that we have made. That progress is going to be leaps and bounds, not only temporally but spiritually. We have been given this opportunity to grow and we will succeed in doing so.

The water started boiling and I finished the oatmeal right before Becky came down. We were able to have breakfast and watch Max and Ruby together. We all climbed under the blanket and sat snuggling on the couch not even thinking about any problems we might have. What a wonderful morning.