Tuesday, July 12, 2011

for the love of potential

yesterday i read this post from kelle hampton's blog and as soon as i read the first line i literally laughed out loud. she talked about how she's addicted to the idea of potential and the euphoria that comes with possibility and oh.my.gosh i can so relate to that.

i can spend hours searching for beautiful things to create (thank you pinterest) but how many hours do i spend actually doing the creating? i bookmark image upon image and dream of the day i'll finally do this project or that project. or dreaming about jetting off to this country or that island. sometimes i'll be sitting in my office and the urge to clean my house will come upon me. what happens when i finally get home? not the desire to clean, that's for sure.

i can walk through home goods or ross and my heart starts racing when i see the potential in this hodge podge of stuff and all the decorating ideas shoved deep into the recesses of my brain start bouncing around and then i have to force myself to stop and take everything in slowly. i'm not kidding people. this is really what happens to me. don't even get me started on clearance aisles or the dollar spot at target.

and please tell me that someone else experiences this, too? i doubt i'm alone but i don't blame you if you don't want to own up to it. haha

i guess the challenge is figuring out how to channel this love of potential into the act of doing. i think sometimes it's because we have these expectations that it's going to be so wonderful and we'd rather hold onto the expectation than come to grips with the reality that it might not be so great. take for instance my day yesterday. i went to the park with my sister and her daughter. we met up with my best friend lyryn and her boys. it was hot and humid and there were way too many big kids running around with water guns and somehow i always seemed to end up in their crossfire. regardless, it was emeline's first time at a splash park so kate and i were trying to help her discover the fun that could be had. there were a few special moments tucked in there but it mostly consisted of trying to get her to actually stay in the splash park and not run over to the playground where all the big kids were. and did i mention it was hot? after almost 2 hours we were pretty much done. by the time we got in the car kate and i were miserable. we were hot and sweaty and dehydrated... and i just looked at kate and said, "how do people do this? it's so exhausting." and there was only 1 kid between the 2 of us! on the way home we talked about how sometimes it's just easier to stay home and avoid the stress of it all. but when you look at the pictures (kate posted a few on her blog today) you see the special moments. you see the cuteness of kids running around in their swimsuits, screaming out in delight when they get splashed or the discovery of a little tube on the playground that is so exciting to a 1 year old. and you're glad you went. yeah, maybe it wasn't all you dreamed it would be, but life rarely is.

photo courtesy of my sister kate

it's so easy to look at other blogs and wish we had that life or wonder why ours isn't so perfect. but remember- it's a small glimpse into a bigger picture of what's really going on. we all have hot, humid, sticky, frustrating days. but we also all have beautiful special moments tucked in there just waiting to be discovered.

so while i do enjoy dreaming off all that could be i don't want to miss those moments of actually doing those things that give me joy and are life-giving. it's something i need to remind myself of daily.

hope you find your beautiful moments today!

 

4 comments:

Hailey @ Me and My Boys said...

This is the theme of my life this week. Obviously, God is sending some serious signs my way, because this is the second post this week that I've read dealing with living up to my potential. And it's only Tuesday!
I'm so there. I have all these awesome ideas and plans and projects, but when it actually comes to DOING? I'm totally flaking. So yeah. This week is all about me living up to my potential... a better mom, better wife, etc. Geez, maybe I need to do a post, ya think? :)

Unknown said...

love this post, just love it

Katie @ Loves of Life said...

HA. I loved this. It's true. Sometimes I look at Kelle Hamptons posts and think, OMG PERFECT DAY, PERFECT LIFE, EUPHORIA!! And then I realize that we are all human, and she probably was hot, sticky and annoyed at SOME point in the day, too. But, she still captured a moment or two (or a thousand like she always does) that makes it all look PERFECT. But yea. I get it. There were fun moments tucked in there, though. Just gotta find 'em.

Biz said...

I don't know who Kelle Hampton (or her blog) is but I SO get the point. I spend far too much time thinking about what could be. My expectations are eternally set high no matter what I do. I guess it's just the way I was made. So you're not alone there.

And as far as being hot, sticky, and frustrated after a day out with the kid(s)? Oh my. Know it all to well. We drove 2hrs round trip to spend an hour and 15 minutes at the splash park the other day just for the kids. WHO does that kind of thing? lol