Priorities

I am a master of my priorities.

Okay, I tried to type that with a straight face and I couldn’t do it. You guys wouldn’t have bought it anyway.

I’m under a deadline here. In a week and one day, I will be boarding a plane for Israel. I’ll be gone for ten days. This is a trip I’ve wanted to take my whole life.

There’s just a whole lot that has to happen before then.

As I said in the video, my to-do list has only gotten longer as the trip gets closer. And I cleared the two weeks I’d be gone on my calendar. I just didn’t clear the week before.

I was talking to my sister on the phone (who is taking one shift with the kiddos while we’re gone). She said, “Linds, all you really need is your passport.”

I didn’t say anything. After the obvious pause, she said, “Okay, that’s not really true.”

I laughed. “Sounded good though.”

I was walking into my therapist’s office last week, anxious to talk about some things that were making me anxious. I was walking fast, not because I was late (which was unusual), but because I wanted to get inside and get some work done while I was waiting.

Right by the office door was a bush of gorgeous gardenias. I was too distracted to notice their beauty at first pass, but their sweet scent got my attention.

I turned around and admired them.

Most people can’t have gardenias inside because their scent is so strong. But I was thankful for the overpowering smell that day. I walked slowly over to the bush, leaned down and took several, long slow breaths.

Stopped and smelled the gardenias.

I remember something Brad said shortly after we got married. I was so ready to feel at home in my new city that I had completely overbooked myself one weekend and planned on spending very little time at home.

Brad asked me gently not to forget about my new family, in the midst of making new friends. I started to protest and he said something I’ll never forget:

Somebody’s gotta lose.

I was taken aback at the harshness and pushed back a little. He shrugged, “I’m just sayin’ you can’t do everything and be with everybody. Somebody’s gotta lose. Who do you want it to be?”

Priorities. I’ve gotten it wrong so many times.

The night I told Caroline I couldn’t tuck her in because I had too much work to do. (Ugh, still makes me cringe.)

When my husband or a kid walk in the room and I don’t look up from my laptop.

I’m struggling with something right now. I’m in a book club discussing a book about being a better parent, which sometimes involves me missing Sydney’s track meets or Caroline’s softball games.

And of course, like most of us, I’m pretty bad at taking care of myself.

But there have been a few times when I’ve nailed it.

A dear friend was going through a hard time in another state, lonely and depressed. I drove up to South Carolina for a weekend. Drove up Friday, hung out with her Saturday, drove home Sunday. Sounds crazy, right? Totally worth it.

My grandparents were not doing well one Thursday night. I had a weekend full of plans that Brad convinced me none of them were reason enough to stay. I hopped on a plate to Kentucky the next morning. Again, just for a weekend. Precious time that I’m SO thankful for, especially now that they’re gone.

We all love to commiserate about our busyness. But if we get our priorities wrong more than we get them right, we need to start looking hard at our calendar and maybe remove some of the options.

Head over to the Facebook page and tell us about a time when you’ve nailed it or a time when you blew it, when it came to priorities.

And if this is something you could use some help with, shoot me an email and let’s set up a time to chat.

See you next week!