Delayed Awesomeness



I used to be the sort of person who carefully selected a card that had the most relevant, powerfully written message I could find. And I used to buy presents that reflected how well I knew people and how much I thought about and cared for them. I was super awesome at the whole gift-giving thing. You know, when I remembered to do it anyway.

Now? Now I don't feel like I know people anymore. My life revolves around four little girls and a husband and if I get a chance to have more than a five minute conversation with anyone else, I feel pretty dang stoked. So I've lost touch with what the people I care about, well, care about. Does she still collect rooster paraphernalia? I ask myself. Is his bedroom still decked out in glow-in-the-dark light sabers and Star Wars Lego. (If he's cool, it totally is.)

I just don't know. So the picture above made me laugh in a very, very sad way. Because I am totally going to start doing exactly that. As it is, I email an amazon gift certificate to people. Or I slip them a bit of cash when no one's looking because I forgot to grab an envelope while I was running out the door with four kids in tow, two of whom were screaming, one of whom I had to wake up from a nap to make it to the party on time, and the other who, oh wait, she's still inside looking for her shoes.

And I know that some day I'm going to look back on these days and laugh. (And if I don't? I'm coming after the two-hundred-and-seventy-three women who have told me I will. Repeatedly. And at length.) I'm going to laugh because of how calm and simple my life will seem in comparison to all of the craziness of kids at home and trying to get enough sleep and stepping on soggy cheerios in my bare feet AGAIN, and wondering how I can be so happy and so tired and so stressed and so glad ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

When the easier times come (AND DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME THEY WON'T BECAUSE I WILL HURT YOU), I'll smile, and start being awesome in entirely new ways. Just see if I don't.

VanderVision Tip of the Day: Sometimes, you have to hit the pause button on one of your personal elements of awesome. To everything a time and a season, yo.

3 comments:

  1. it's hard for me to not be able to do ALL THE THINGS, but stepping back and hitting 'pause on one of [my] personal elements of awesome' is exactly what I need to do when flaring . . . thanks for this

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used to be the super-awesome gift giver too, always out to get the perfect thing. Lately though...I just don't have it in me. Amazon is the perfect gift in my book anyway (pun intended).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Short answer: It is impossible to underestimate how much easier life gets once they can tie their own shoes, fasten their own seatbelts, and wipe their own bums.

    Long answer: I wrote some thoughts on this same subject a while back:
    http://segullah.org/daily-special/supposed-to-be-hard/

    ReplyDelete

Instagram

@kymburleevan