Last year my daughter decided she wanted to take up juggling. She used little bean bags we had around the house.
She would throw them in the air one by one, picking them up and trying again as they fell to the ground over and over again.
As I was thinking about my daughters juggling skills new and growing, it made me think about the juggling act that mothers get to practice every day.
If there was a talent show for this kind of juggling, I would be quite confident that I could show up and impress the crowd. I would have way more than 3 balls up in the air.
Picture this, you are in the middle of your juggling act, you have the whole crowd watching you. You crack under the pressure of it all and the balls coming crashing down to the ground around you.
You are left feeling humiliated, alone and like a complete failure.
For me, my juggling act consists of more balls than I would like to have to count sometimes.
Getting my kids out the door, meal planning, grocery shopping, working full time, vacuuming the carpet, taking the dog for walks, doing the dishes, making lunches, budgeting, laundry, quality time, homework, yard work, and community responsibilities.
When there are that many things to juggle all at once, they are bound to come crashing down on us sometimes.
What if this was ok. What if sometimes we can’t do it all and we allow ourselves to accept that.
What if we decide to not make it mean we are not enough and instead chose to believe that maybe we could benefit from slowing down or simplifying in some areas of our life.
When I transitioned from part-time work to full-time, I noticed an increase in the number of times all the balls were crashing down on me.
I became overwhelmed, frustrated and resentful.
I decided to re-evaluate everything I was juggling. Some things had to go all together and other things I just needed to let go of. Once my grip was loosened I could allow others to help me juggle some of those balls.
Realizing that I was making my life so much harder than it needed to be was an amazing turning point for me.
I am still an amazing juggler. I still show up with lots of balls in the air, but I no longer choose to allow a dropped ball mean that I am not good enough.
Instead, I make it mean that I am a human doing the best I can today.
