A Time for Everything

Many years ago, when I was going through a really rough patch in my life, I bought a book I heard about on Oprah. Yeah, in my pre-work, stay-at-home-mom days, I watched Oprah. Back then, I will shamefully admit, I loved Oprah and rarely missed a show. So shoot me, call me crazy, whatever. I admit it. My name is Rose, and I used to love Oprah.



The book is called "Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy" by Sarah Ban Breathnach. I remember two things about that particular episode of Oprah...one, when Oprah asked her "Now how do you pronounce your last name?" and she replied, "It's not 'Bon-breath-neck' it's "Bon-brah-nach,' and two...she described the reason for writing the book...which was to encourage people to focus on the blessings in their lives, even in the midst of really horrible things. I bought the book, which consists of daily readings for an entire year. Each month focuses on a different topic, and each day contains a one page or less subject to focus on for that particular day. I especially loved the pages at the end of each month's chapter, which were called "Joyful Simplicities for (Month)." Her main premise of the book, though, is for the reader to find things each day to be grateful for and to jot them down in a journal. While I didn't always keep up with reading each day, for more than a year, I did keep a "gratitude journal" and wrote my thoughts each morning or evening about what I was thankful for that day. I have always been a pretty postive, upbeat person, but forcing myself to focus on the good things in my life, even when things were not so good, changed my outlook. While I wish I could say that over the years I have kept up my written gratitude journal, I have not. However, that "attitude of gratitude" has never left me, even during really hard times. In fact, on the hardest of days, I seem to automatically think to myself, "now what has been GOOD about this day?" It is often a conversation I have with myself on my way home from work each day.



I am not always perfect at it, and there are definately days that I'd like to punch the happy, look-on-the-bright-side of things Miss Susie Sunshine right in the ol' kisser, but then I tell myself that I'm not striving for perfection, that some days will just royally suck, that there will be days that no amount of positive spin doctoring will turn a pile of sour lemons into a sparkling crystal clear pitcher of sweet lemonade.



I know I have digressed. Shocking, huh?



I recently took this book off the bookshelf, dusted it off, put it on my nightstand, and have been making an effort to read it each day. Some days, the message really speaks to me, other days, I don't even finish reading because it seems silly and doesn't relate to my life at all.



Today was not one of those days.



The topic for September 28 is "A Time for Everything." Each day also has a quote underneath the title, and today's quote is, "There is a time for everything. And a season for every activity under Heaven." -Ecclesiastes 3:1.



To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn...and a time to every purpose...under Heaven. A time to laugh...a time to weep. A time to gain...a time to lose. A time for peace, I swear it's not too late.



Okay, so that is The Byrds talking and not the bible...



But it really made me think. It talks about how it is physically, spiritually and emotionally impossible to be everything we want to be at every moment. What I took from it is that we can't give 100% to work, our family and ourselves, all at the same time...that there are different seasons to our lives that we as women go through, and that just because we are in one season at any given time, and possibly neglecting another season, doesn't mean that other seasons will never come. She writes that just because we don't have certain things right now, that doesn't mean that we never will. She quotes Anna Quindlen, a former Newsweek columnist, who says, "You probably can have it all, just not all at the same time."



This was a very timely thing for me to read today. I am definately in a "work season" right now, and I feel horribly guilty about that. Pretty much every other area of my life is suffering these days, and has been for quite some time. My work obligations are crushing down upon me, and while I would like nothing more than to say "screw you work!" I can't. All I can do is look forward to a few months from now, when work will slow down and I will once again be able to focus on my family. I will decorate for the holidays, bake, and hope that that season will make up for this one.



For now, I am going to try my damndest to revel in the last line of the September 28 topic in my "Simple Abundance" book...



"Blessed is the woman who knows her own limits."



I know my own limits right now today...getting the laundry done and making a decent dinner for my family. If I can achieve those two things today, I'm going to call it a good, no a great, day.