Tag Archives: emotions

Reset.

calm

“Remember. You show our children how to respond to stressful and difficult moments by how you respond to those moments.”

This was the reminder Kris gave me over the phone last night. You know, sometimes, when our husbands are right, we kind of want to roll our eyes or maybe throw a pie in their face. I jest a little. But, I couldn’t do either last night. I told him I recognized that my response was not good, and that I had allowed myself to get overwhelmed and would work through my stuff. He told me recognizing I was not in a good place did not make that place right. Again, he was right. So, I had to make myself right. And, I needed to do it right away. Not the next morning when all of the mercies are new. But, I needed to adjust then. In THAT moment.

It’s hard. We can work ourselves up faster than Clark Kent can turn into Super-Man. Then, we implode. Because, negativity is designed to do just that…..implode. We have to stop feeding it and giving energy to it. “When we hang up, reset your emotions, and go make it right,” he told me with the most tender of tones.

I didn’t have to wait for a sunrise to make that moment of spiraling emotions right. I just had to push the reset button. I didn’t feel like doing it, because staying in my overwhelmed emotions seemed easier. They validated me. They allowed me to justify my responses to stress. But, they didn’t produce anything good.

They didn’t model mercy or compassion.

They didn’t model the scripture, “be anxious for nothing…”

They didn’t model how to respond when life gets hard.

They didn’t model light.

They didn’t heal anything or anyone.

We can’t always calm the storm around us, but we can ALWAYS calm the storm WITHIN us.

And, that’s exactly what I did. I spoke to the storm within me, and said, “Peace be still.” I called my children together and asked forgiveness and spoke peace to them. In the very moment of my overwhelmed emotions, I reset and made it right.

You, too, always have the option to reset. No matter how powerful those negative emotions become….the God within you is greater. It is simply choosing to acknowledge who you really are and tapping into the peace that is already within you. Because, you have everything you need already inside of you. Everything.

You lack nothing.

Today, I choose to create my calm. I choose to model it. I choose to be the light in the dark and the calm in the storm. I choose to reset.

What do you choose today?

Be a lamp, a lifeboat, a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like shepherd. – Rumi

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Filed under God Stuff, Motherhood, parenting, Uncategorized, Virtue

Those Pears Can Be A Doozy.

It was a busy, emotional weekend.  Well, not too busy.  But, apparently it was emotional considering I broke down in the produce section at Super Target.  I don’t think it really matters why

It was the produce section, after all.  Kris was with me.  His expression was a silent “wow.”  He didn’t mention the tears over the tomatoes the rest of the shopping adventure. 

Until the check-out line when he pretended to cry over the jar of jalepenos, the bag of carrots, and the honey crisp apples. 

I would say, “the nerve.”  But the truth is….

He made me laugh.

My friend, Marla, made me feel better when she uncovered her sister Melanie’s pregnancy breakdown.  Poor girl cried when her person didn’t win the Showcase Showdown on the Price Is Right.  And, rightly so.  The Showcase Showdown is kind of a big deal.

It’s hard growing a person, people. 

To top it all off, I can’t even look at the devastation of Haiti.  But, I do.  Because, I refuse to be unaffected by it.  Unmoved.  Unwilling to do something.

I have to.  We all do.  Our hearts have to break over what breaks God’s heart.  Isaiah 61 says God has anointed us to bring good news to the poor and to comfort the brokenhearted.  I think it’s awesome that most of us can give something financially.  And, we should.  But, when I heard my friend, Amy Newberry, say this, it made me want to invest more than just my money:

“I really wish I could go to Haiti today and hold some of those precious women while they cry over the loss of their children.”

That’s a deeper level, friends.  It’s actually being the hands and feet of Christ.

God, please.  Break my heart for what breaks yours. 

And, bring healing to Haiti’s people.

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Filed under giving, God Stuff, making an impact, pregnancy

It’s my party. I’ll cry if I want to.


So, I was sitting on my sofa, laptop in lap, my large canine friend in front of me, and incredibly hot husband to the right of me. 

“I’ve got nothin’.  I mean, I have nothing to write about.  Not when I’m feeling the way I’m feeling,” I blurted out to Kris. 

Whew.

That was hard to admit.  Not running on empty in the creative writing department part.  We all know “creative writing” and dustytakledotcom are not necessarily synonymous.  It was hard to admit that I was struggling inside with some emotions that I have withheld for, oh, about a week.  Ya see, I don’t suppress anything for long.  It’s just not my nature.  But, these feelings, for personal reasons, were just hard to uncover with Kris.  And, it wasn’t his stuff.  It was mine.  All mine. 

So, I told him.  And, I cried.  I cried some more.  Then, a little more. 

Every once in a while, I have an old issue that sneaks up on me.  And, I feel those feelings again.  An issue that I nailed to the cross long ago.  It’s an issue that tries to disguise itself as performance-minded or self-sufficiency.   But, when I tear away its mask, I see it for what it really is.

Insecurity.  A need for validation. 

I knew exactly what prompted those feelings.  Being honest with my feelings wrapped in a blanket of tears was what I needed.

Ahhh.  All better now.

If you’re having your own internal struggle right now, find a safe place and open your heart to him or her.  And, if you really want to get it all out, then cry, baby, cry.

Do you ever just need a good cry?

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Filed under life, Marriage