My Absolutes

So for my birthday I thought it would be fun to take a look back and see what the last ten years have taught me, I thought I would call it, a list of my absolutes....

A few “absolutes” my twenties have taught me.....

• First thing I thought the last decade has taught me was.....There are no absolutes! Only someone with no life experience would think there were. ;) If you asked me ten years ago I would have told you I would ABSOLUTELY NEVER be a stay at home mom, I would never drive a mini van, I would never homeschool, I would never ever do X, Y and Z. Blah blah blah. I am. I do. I will. And I have done A through Z! 

But still just for fun....these are my “absolutely-for-nows” ........

• It is absolutely OK to look in the mirror and not recognize yourself! In fact it’s great, it means you are evolving. Why oh why do we think we know who we are so concretely, so young? Then we waste years (our twenties) trying so hard NOT to be someone “we’re not”....We essentially fight our own growth, stunting ourselves and wasting time. We need to realize that it’s OK to change with time, everything around us does. Embrace it! Now I always tell people I am a work in progress, in ten years I hope to be the best person you know. Until then this is who I am, hang on and enjoy the ride! 

• I absolutely know myself enough to know that my shoe size, shirt size, pant size, bra size all change based on the sale price and how cute it is. If it’s on clearance, forget about it, I am a one size fits all girl! In addition even my hair color is changed based on price.... at any given moment you can look at my color and guess my bank account balance. If I am brunette I am trying to work on a budget, if I am blonde with no roots we are having a good year, if I am blonde with dark roots I need to get back on a budget and will be brunette again soon. ;) 

• There is an absolutely devastating disorder that hits most women at some point in time in their lives, I am recently trying to recover from this, the disorder begins when they forget who they were, they are tired all the time, they can’t remember a thing, stop spending any money on themselves and less and less time on themselves. It’s called Motherhood! There is no cure but scientists are hopeful that it goes dormant as soon as it’s noticed and a girl’s night out is scheduled. 

• I believe it is absolutely the most offensive crime against another person to not extend grace where grace is deserved. Be careful. It is also consequently one of the hardest things to forgive. 

• It is absolutely my belief that there is a level of humility, vulnerability & faith that is necessary to have a long fulfilling marriage and rarely do we reach those things during the easy times. Some times those things are unattainable until after you have had your world turned upside down and you both have to right it together. Be patient, don’t give up, on the other side there is a level of love you never knew you were missing.

• When you feel like nothing in your life is going right you should absolutely look outside yourself and give time, effort, money, and energy that you feel you don’t have to give and you’d be amazed at what will come back to you and how much you will notice you have had the whole time. 

• The turmoil you feel in many situations can absolutely be defined as the vast difference between your expectations and your reality. The difference that causes you to question everything does NOT mean there is something wrong with your reality but perhaps there is something very wrong with your expectations. Think about it. 

• I absolutely think most of our anxiety or problems in life can be calmed if we realize that unresolved conflict eats away at our soul and although you can not control every situation and it’s outcome you can absolutely bring your side of any situation to a point you are comfortable leaving it. Then do just that put it down, leave it. If you quickly apply that concept to every problem you have you’d be amazed the inner peace that would follow. Think to yourself, ok what’s the problem? What can I do right now to get this situation maybe not to the end solution I want, but to a point where I can leave it knowing I did what I could for right now and then let the next person/thing respond or take its turn? Then let it go. The next step will come back to you then you can do that same thing over and over again. In the meantime you won’t have been stressing or worrying to control something you can’t you will just be waiting until it’s your turn again. Relax. Simplify.

• There is absolutely something about people that is amazing, you can learn something from everyone and you can always spare a moment to build someone up. 

• Life will teach you that you MUST be vulnerable, humble and forgiving to be absolutely fulfilled.....like it or not.....take the easier route and seek things out that will help you master these traits....otherwise these lessons will seek you out in forms you don’t always appreciate.

• Your life may absolutely not go as you’ve planned but I promise you, having faith in yourself and where you are at each exact moment in life, IS the plan.

• Love is absolutely, most certainly, without a doubt not enough, but it’s a really great start. 

• I absolutely believe in my heart and in my soul that choosing your girlfriends you will walk through life with is as important as choosing your mate.

• Being content with who you are and where you are plain and simply equals being happy, seek contentment and gratitude out as hard as you seek the “next big thing” out and you will have absolutely everything you need.

• I think that we absolutely overcomplicate our “lives” thinking of each thing in life as a Chapter in our book, separating everything out so one period of life doesn’t flow into the next, not enjoying the “planning”, the works in progress, that we are. I think you will be most successful if you think of your past as your rough draft, your present as your outline and your goals as your final product. Remember you are not graded on your final product until you turn it in.  

So you see, I absolutely love knowing right now that I think these things are fairly absolute to me at this point in my life but I also love knowing that when I reread this on my fortieth birthday (hopefully as that great person I keep trying to become) I will absolutely find these absolutes absolutely hilarious.....kind of makes me wish I had the fore thought to have done one of these on my twentieth birthday to compare now..... Oh man would that be hilarious....I can see it now....I will absolutely never ever write a blog... Wait were there blogs back then? ;)