This has been a season of crazy. In July of last year, Husband and I decided to give Tiny Twig a real and fair chance at being some really awesome. I planned a rebrand, 31 days series, and a conference to attend–which all happened smack together in October of 2011. Oh yeah, and I had an awesome dreaming session (with some of the most amazing people) that put roots to a lot of the lofty ideas I had.
Well, that 31 days series turned into an eBook.
That conference was amazing and planted the seed for Influence.
Those dreams that I dared dream are happening.
And, of course, when dreams take flight–other things are left on the ground. You can’t take everything up with you.
There are things that don’t get done. Commitments that must be re-thought. New routines and responsibilities that take adjusting to.
We all go through this. Every single day. You make choices. You choose not to do something in order to do something that is better, or easier, or more attractive at the time. We hope we make wise choices, forgoing the good for the better–not being lured or tempted to choose the easy track.
Jessi Connolly (my friend that is planning Influence with me) and I have both written about the fact that we don’t and can’t do it all. Ever. Jessi’s post was honest (with pictures!) and her readers were just as honest in the comments. And my post was (aside from the bangs post) my most viewed page ever. It was clear to both of us that this truth–hear me say THIS TRUTH–resounded with our readers. We cannot do it all. And, really, we shouldn’t do it all.
So, we’ve decided to write once a week about something we’ve foregone because of another decision we’ve made. It’s like the concept of opportunity cost I speak about in the Tiny Twig video. When you make one choice, you give up the option to make another choice. Something has to give. You don’t have to be amazing at everything. You don’t have to be good at everything.
We’re calling this link-up “Giving Up On Good”. We’ll invite you to link up starting next Thursday. You can put your link on Jessi’s blog or my blog–it doesn’t matter. The links will show up on both blogs, because the internet is magic. We’ll also encourage you to encourage each other. Leave comments of solidarity. Let’s break down the idea that women have it all together–that we have to have it all together.
This week, Tuesday rolled around. The boys were irritated and snapping at each other. I was exhausted and on the verge of snapping at them. When Husband eased in the door after work, he found me semi-hiding plopped on our bed. It was then that he made the executive decision. We wouldn’t be going to our scheduled Community Group that night.
Our Community Group meets twice per month–and it’s a great time of getting to know each others’ hearts on a deeper level. But, it also is a big commitment of time and energy. Our Tuesday evenings span from 5:30-9:30pm door to door. This is hard on our boys, and harder still when they are already squirrelly and exhausted.
I could have been nervous to let people down, knowing that we had committed to doing life together in this season. BUT, more important still is our commitment to our boys. We have committed, as husband and wife, to not raise them as “slaves to busy”. We want them to know that people have limits, and people need rest. I also want to always be a person that models a high-value on rest.
This divergence away from busy isn’t always popular in our go-go-go suburban culture. Busy and productive and involved are good. But, this is a pace of life we saw modeled very intentionally while we lived in North Carolina. And where there was rest, there was always room for grace. We want to be a family of grace and peace and rest. And really, that priority reigned higher this week than Community Group–as wonderful a blessing as Community Group is.
Giving up the good for the better. That’s okay. Oh, and also? How’s this for a little “I don’t do it all” honesty? :)