Like just about everyone else out there, there are days when I feel completely overwhelmed. I firmly believe the old saying “it takes a village to raise a child”, and to add to that I believe that it’s important for my overall well being to be a part of a “village”. With all our moving, uprooting, and the like we have had a really difficult time building and maintaining a village. There is a village full of people back home who we could jive with, but we aren’t there – we are here – village-less. Learning how to live without a constant support system is challenging at best – but the one thing I am learning that is an absolute necessity is to learn how to ask for help.
I have never been really good at asking for help. I also don’t like asking for directions when I’m driving. Both are a sign of weakness (not really, but somehow in my brain they are). But the reality is that one person can’t do everything. And I’m learning that in order to do things well I can only do a few things. And to do things really well I can do even fewer. So, I’m learning how to ask for help.
Today I had some wonderful ladies come to the house and scrub it from top to bottom. I was Christmas-and-Birthday combined excited. I still am Christmas-and-Birthday combined excited. The house looks so amazing, I feel like I can handle the daily chaos in order to have it “show ready” at all times. Seriously, they’ll call and give 20 minutes before they want to come see the house sometimes. I have 2 kids, a dog and a cat. Who the heck lives in a show ready house? Not me usually. But these ladies came in and scrubbed and cleaned and vacuumed and the house is clean and sparkling! My anxiety about it has gone, I feel so relieved and happy and more capable of keeping on top of things.
Because I asked for help. Changed my whole outlook on things. Overwhelmed feelings are most certainly lower. The village. We all need one.
Tonight lying in bed reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, I opened to the passage “Ask for help when you need it, and give help when you can. I think that is how we serve God – and each other and ourselves…” Which sums it up perfectly.
Happiness moment for the day (day 16 of my 44 days of happiness): Our local radio DJ has an anger diary “Zack’s Anger Diary” and when we remember to have the radio on the right station and it’s the right day (which we need to find out exactly when it’s on so it’s not so random) the kids and I listen to it on the way to school. Usually it’s bust a gut funny, but today was bust a gut and fall over funny. Maybe more for me than the kids, because it was all about kids and their incessant need to snack and treat us like their personal butlers. I think the kids laughed harder at how hard I was laughing than they did at Zack. Anyway, listen to today’s diary here. It was like he was living my life!!
