Reflections

Wow, two posts in one day.  I'm a maniac.  This one should've been posted last week, but it's been crazy at work, so I haven't really had time to reflect on the A to Z Challenge.  Now it's too late to link at the challenge site, but I'm going to post this anyway. 
I started the challenge because my friend Sylvia over at Writing in Wonderland suggested it and I thought, hey, fun.  Why not do it? 
Who thought it would make me crazy? 
This was my first year  so I was concerned I wouldn't do it right.  I wasn't sure what a blog hop was at first.  It sounded like a dance more than a computer thing.
I would stay up late the night before, trying to get the post just right, worrying over each word so that I wouldn't say the wrong thing.  I'd be exhausted at work and still fretting over the posts.   I'd scramble trying to visit sites.  I was making myself insane trying to get to all 1700+ sites.  Then came the challenge to get over 100 followers.  I tried to figure out how to get more people to my site.  My mind was filled with all sorts of crazy notions.
Then it hit me:  I can't possibly do all this.  So, I took a different approach. I went for quality over quantity.  I didn't try to collect followers, but found sites I was interested in. I wrote my posts, kept up with the sites I could, and added a few more as time permitted. 
It started being what it was supposed to be: fun.  I posted each letter on the right day. I visited other sites.  I finished with my sanity intact. I'm still checking out other sites on the list and keeping up with those I linked to. I didn't get 100 followers, but I have more than when I started.  I have new friends to check out and I learned about all sorts of things from law, to Scandinavian culture, to writing techniques and murders. I went all over the US and the world.  It was a wild, fun ride.
Did I have some favorite places?  Sure, but to point out a few would be unfair to the others I don't have space to write about. 
This is the most important lesson I learned:  I write because I'm a writer.  I write what I'm passionate about.  If people buy it, fine, but whether or not they do, I'm still going to write.
Will I do it again?  I'm already thinking of how I can do next year different, so I guess that means I will. 

The Highest Calling

I’m always torn on Mother’s Day as to whether or not I want to go to church.  Do I want to go hear how even though I’ve chosen to follow Christ I’m still missing the mark because I don’t have children? The message is:  I haven’t embraced the highest calling so I'm not doing something right. I'm not "complete"

Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Jesus say the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind?  And the second is love your neighbor as yourself.   Jesus goes on to say if you love your mother, father, sons, daughters more than Me you aren’t worthy of following me. (Mark 12:28-31; Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26)  

Our highest calling is to glorify God.  We do this through choosing to obey and let Him lead us.  For some that’s missionary.  For some that’s healer.  For some that’s wife, husband, mother, father. There are thousands of ways God uses us.  All roles are equal.  It’s society that assigns value and elevates one over the other.  The lie is that life is meaningless without kids. I’m not buying it. God says there’s no greater road than the one that leads to Heaven. I’m not trading my eternal treasures in Heaven for temporary ones here.

I love my mother.I appreciate all she sacrificed for us. This Mother’s Day I’m going to thank her for loving me and being there for me. I’m going to thank my parents for giving me the confidence to live a life worthy of Christ.   I’m not going let others make me think I’m wrong for the road I've chosen.   I know motherhood is an important role, but that doesn’t make what I do any less.  I’m not in a holding pattern waiting for life to begin after motherhood.   

I’m going to say thank you to those who cover for me when I have to take off for the same gyn, dentist, eye appointments they do. I’m going to sympathize because I hate dishes and laundry too—yes, single people with no children get dishes and clothes dirty. I’m going to be jealous because I had to take my own garbage can out in the rain instead of having a kid to do it. 

I’m going to say you're welcome for covering for those moms who take off for field trips and soccer games. I’m going to be forgiving when a friend breaks plans for a sick child. I’m going to do my work cheerfully even if I don't get a thank you. 

  If God has in your life to be a mother, great.  Embrace that with all you have.  But, if that's not where He's leading you, don't force it.  Life's hard enough living it where you should be.  Don't add the wrong direction to the mix.

Gone with the Procrastination

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task." ~William James

Unless it's weeding through 1300 emails.  Whew, that wasn't easy!
In my technology post I discussed my love/hate relationship with technology.  Part of the problem is email junkmail.  It's like getting those ads in the mail that you didn't ask for and wonder why it came to you.  Before you say it, yes I have a spam filter--but you know how that goes.  Ads come in the mail, solicitors call you, and junk ends up in your inbox. 
It's life in a consumer driven society. 
Not having any more excuses--like the A to Z challenge, certification self-tests, dirty dishes--I finally got on email and the piles of clothes in my laundry basket.  It was getting to the point where I was going to have to wear PJs to work.  I don't know that pirates or plaid would go over too well.  So now I have clean clothes and an empty inbox. 
Scarlett O'Hara often said things like I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.I've been doing that as well.  The problem is my brain is so full of what I'm going to do tomorrow it's going to busy for the next month.  So, I'm going to start working down my list of things I've been putting off.
I just have to reach into tomorrow and pull them back to today....

What are you putting off that could be done today?