Recently I spent an evening with a group of young women, one of whom had brought her four-month-old baby.
As the baby charmed us, by cooing and smiling - and a few minutes later was fussing and gnawing on her fist (teething?) - and then (a few minutes later) laughing and smiling again - I was reminded of the baby years that I went through with each of my three children.
I was so looking forward to those baby years... I love babies and I loved this period of life... most of the time. But every day - every hour sometimes - had its ups and downs! Some days, some hours I was extremely tired and grumpy (having been awakened too early by a little person needing my attention). But mingled with the "downs" of trying to comfort a crying infant or changing yet another dirty diaper, there were those moments of pure ecstasy, the pure joy of mother- baby love.
In many ways life (for me) has always been a little like that: I look for the perfect moments - at work, at home, on vacation. But mixed in with all my wonderful times are moments of frustration, impatience, and even anger.
Reflecting on my moments of disappointment, two thoughts jump out at me:
"To travel hopefully is better than to arrive," Robert Louis Stevenson reminds me.
"Getting there isn't half the fun - it's all the fun," I read recently in a book about running your own business.
The joy, the fun isn't there and then - it's here and now.
Maybe, when I'm experiencing a less-than-fun moment, I need to ask myself:
What would make this fun?
Maybe it is as simple as taking myself less seriously. Maybe it's not the situation - but my intensity, my attitude - that needs to change...
Maybe, if I'm not having fun, I have no one but myself to blame...
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