Grateful

There are days, when the hub bub of life is so hectic, when I am so caught up in getting the kids to school, the day planned, work handled and my house organized that I lose site of things. Sometimes those days are more frequent than I care to admit. Tempers flare. I get get short. I yell at my husband. I lose my s#@! with the kids. I smile tight lipped at the coffee guy, even when he’s the sweetest guy there is. How dare he be so dang bubbly while I bumble through the morning only half caffeinated. There are those days. I think of the hassle of it all. It seems like there’s a mound of laundry, a mile long to-do list and a stack of crap to sort through.

The days when you think you have the worst life, the worst job, the worst house, the worst of everything. And you’re just so sick and tired of it. You’re in a rut. We all have those days, well at least I do. But sometimes life has a way of smacking you right upside the head. Actually, for me it’s typically God doing the smacking.

You know when you think you have it so horrible, when you think that life is so very tough and that you are sure being someone else, anyone else, anything else could be better? It’s not. I wrote a blog post a few years ago about comparison being the thief of joy. I firmly maintain that. Social media has ruined us that way. Even though we know no one’s life is perfect and wonderful, our little minds make us think that. We make ourselves think that the grass is greener. We think the profession we chose could be easier, if we are in education we think our job could be more like a job in healthcare. If we are in healthcare we think our job could be more like a job in banking. If we are in banking we think our job could be more like a job in agriculture. I better stop there, I am not sure anyone thinks their job should be more like a ranchers job. And if they do, I want to meet them!

My point is this, no one’s job is perfect. All work has it’s hard parts. We’ve heard a lot about essential workers lately, and I am so glad to hear that discussion. Because we are all important. We all have a job in this world. We all matter. Being a teacher is hard work. Being a nurse is hard work. Being a banker is hard work. Being a farmer or rancher is hard work. No one gets through the day or week without stress. A teacher has demands of educating our kids. Sometimes our kids don’t want to learn. Sometimes they have barriers that make teaching very difficult. Sometimes the parents are a real pain in the you know what. A nurse has the job of literally caring for his or her community. They see us at our worst. They stand with us when we experience unimaginable sickness and grief. They experience life at it’s peaks and valleys. Every. Single. Day. A banker, now this one you might wonder about. I picked it on purpose. I remember a story my dad told me when I was younger. In the late 70s and early 80s my dad worked for FSA. Those days were dark days for lenders and agriculture. He worked with farmers who were struggling. He had to tell people they were going to lose their entire operation. Their family’s life long work. Their farm that went back generations. Bankers carry that. That’s stressful work, guys. It’s a burden to carry - knowing your job means telling someone their life’s work wasn’t good enough. Their passion failed. And then there are the folks that feed us. They are out there every day, rain or shine. There’s no vacation. No FMLA. No weekend break. No three 12’s in a row and then I have a couple of days off. 24/7/365 - farmers and ranchers work to care for the land and animals that feed us. And many of us pay no attention to it at all.

No one’s life is easy. Kids are hard. Getting through the day to day stuff is hard. Growing older, watching your parents grow older is hard. Man, it’s harder than I ever really thought it would be. Right?

And here’s the part where life smacks you right upside the head. You just get your whole melt down wrapped up. You just finish complaining about it all and BOOM - you realize that at least you have kids, family, a house and a job to complain about. Yep I said it. You have a full life, with all it’s joy and all it’s struggle but at least you have a full life. Some people don’t. Many people don’t. Sure, they may look on the outside to have a full life. You might see someone with their family and friends and they may look like they have the same full and hectic life. But so many of us are not full, we are not whole. We are missing parts that we once had. And it’s only then, when we lose a piece of our life, when we experience that complete loss and grief that we start to realize - maybe this life - with all the activities and all the plates (or bowls) in the air is not so bad.

I say this as much for you as I say it for me: Stop taking your life for granted. Stop complaining about your kids. Stop trying to find your sole happiness in your job. Stop comparing your work to others. Stop thinking the grass is greener on the other side. Because it’s not.

What you have in your life, someone else is begging to have that back in theirs.