Rambling on...

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship." Louisa May Alcott

I am learning to sail my ship through life while gathering experiences, knowledge and wisdom. There are times in life when I’ve applied these things to my life really well and other times when they all went right out the window. But, that’s part of being human in some ways. I guess we all just do the best we can in certain situations and hope we are morally and ethically being the best we can in life.

Teaching our children along the way and hope they will become the adults we are trying to raise them to be. I always have told my girls to “follow the golden rule. Do unto other’s as you’d have done to you.” It’s a very simple rule. It’s straight forward and seemingly easy enough to do. But, we all screw up at times. That’s when I believe that I have to look at those instances and at the very least learn from them.

This reminds me of something that happened last night. My 10 year old was upset because she forgot to bring home a homework paper from school. Now, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Usually my husband will bring her back to the school and get what she needs. But, this time he was unable to do so. I believe that it turned out to be a good life lesson. Without these experiences we won’t grow to make better choices each time we come across a situation or an issue unless we have learned to do things differently.

I'm a pretty strong believer in that we live what we learn in life. If I teach my daughter that every time she forgets her homework that we'll bring her to school to get it I will have taken away a lesson for her in life. Lesson being to be able to independently take care of her things. To feel secure enough to know she can handle it. This is just one small thing, but it's a lesson. Now, I'm not saying that I should never get her homework for her but I do believe there is a balance that needs to exist.

This is something small but it is still a lesson that will prepare her for her future. I have had times in
my life when I thought that I could not handle a situation that I was in. There were times when it seemed utterly hopeless. I didn’t know how I would find the strength or courage to move forward. But, what choice did I have? I had to move forward. We all do. That’s the only option. So, when I was at a very low point in my life and wondering how the hell I would ever get through this, the weight of the world on my shoulders, a friend said to me “Erin, God doesn’t give you anything that you can’t handle. If it’s in your lap that means God knows you can handle it.”

Although, things didn’t change drastically for me in the situation I was in, I was able to hold on to faith. To think that if something greater than me such as God knew that I could handle this, then I had to believe it too. I was able to really change the way that I was seeing things in life. I was able to enjoy life, my attitude changed and I was able to live, not just survive.