Our family is settling into 2013 quite well, and I hope your family is as well. Today I am thankful for a quiet morning. I realize that, when my family is around during the weekends and holidays, I am unable to take time for my blogs. I am sure that I could find time later in the day, but it seems my mind is more open at the time right after I wake up. I am able to receive more messages at this time. Not that I don’t hear them throughout the day, but usually when I do at that time, I am not anywhere near my computer. Ah well!
So the new year is upon us. For some of us, that can seem as scary as another birthday. Where did the time go? I am getting older! Where is the life I thought I would be living at this point in my life? All good acknowledgments for the new year, but missing the main point.
THIS is where we were meant to be. This is our moment. We are older AND wiser.
What do we do with this moment? Do we fret over it? Well, that would be a complete waste of the next moment! We LIVE it. We take everything important from this moment and hold on to it. Maybe we analyze it just a bit, but don’t overthink it. Just look for the wisdom we have gained from this moment. Absorb that wisdom.
There is a lesson I am learning right now. My kitties are teaching it to me. It applies to my own children and others in my life. Last night, I was at school again: Just as I was crawling into bed, I heard a coyote yipping outside my window. He did so three times. I did a quick inventory of the animals. Gunner was downstairs sleeping with Clint. I looked out in the garage, and Boo Boo came running right up to the door for hugs, which I obliged. But where was Yogi? I searched the garage and called her name, but no Yogi. I opened the door and called her name and listened to the silence, but no Yogi.
I have to remind you, Yogi is my hunter. She lives to hunt. she doesn’t really want to be inside for more than a hug, because she loves the outdoors and freedom it entails. She is the one teaching me this lesson.
I spent a good fifteen minutes calling and searching for Yogi, with no luck. I put Boo Boo back on his bed and headed into the house. Jeff was still awake, and I knew he would probably get up and have a bowl of cereal, which he often does when his restless legs are acting up. It seems to help. (haha) So I told him, when you get up, look for Yogi in the garage. And then I tried to sleep.
At this point, I knew that I was in school, learning. Yogi could just as well have been my sons, out with friends and not having checked in with me. (They are adults, and I don’t expect them to check in.) Yogi could have been my health, experiencing a flare-up of my colitis or allergies or hot flashes. Yogi represents all my worry because she is not one that I can control.
My rational mind took action before I went to sleep last night. I reminded myself that Yogi is a hunter, and she understand the role of the hunter can sometimes reverse to the role of the hunted. She learned well before she came to us that her refuge is the trees. She is smart, and she will survive because of it. There is no need to worry because she has all the tools she needs to be a survivor. And if she doesn’t survive, well, she lived her life the way she wanted to.
She lived her life the way she wanted to, despite my worry. So I let it go. Jeff got up to eat his bowl of cereal, and when he came back to bed, he told me Yogi was home. I instantly fell asleep.
When I was 20, I hadn’t learned the lesson from worry. When I was 30, I hadn’t learned the lesson from worry, but I had started to learn tools to deal with it. By the time I was 40, I was given my biggest challenge in raising teen boys, and I picked up a few more tools along the way. And finally, I am 48, and though I still am learning the lesson from worry, I worry less. I release my worries sooner. I give it over to God, which is what works for me.
Take this moment and LIVE it. Analyze it just a little bit, and then let it go, and take in the lesson it offers us. Become older AND wiser. It’s only natural.