During my morning social media stalking, aka: scrolling through my facebook feed, I saw a post about how a baby was 41 days old today.
After seeing the post about the baby being 41 days old I figured out that as of today I've been alive for 15,870 days. It's not my birthday or anything, it just made me wonder how many days old I was.
During those 15,870 days I've been married, divorced, gave birth to three children, made friends, lost friends, had a mother, lost a mother, got jobs, lost jobs, spent 12,775 of those days in the cult of Scientology, and so much more.
My theme in life is to live life perfectly imperfect. That means I learn from my mistakes, and I celebrate my triumphs. That doesn't mean I don't work to be and do better at the things I do. It means that I strive to accept myself for who I am, flaws and all. If I can't do that, how can I accept anyone else for who they are.
I'm the mom who sent her son to football practice wearing his nut cup upside down, multiple times, but I'm also the mom who stayed up all night taking care of him when he had a fever of 104.
I'm the daughter who put magnetic bullet holes on her mother's car, freaking her out and convincing her that a gang of angry suburban hoodlums shot up her car, but I'm also the daughter who gave her one of my kidneys when her's failed.
I'm the woman who got sloppy, sick drunk the first time he introduced me to his father, but I'm also the woman who spent two days cleaning his house so he could spend more time with his kids rather than on household chores.
I'm the friend who forgot to ask how your sick grandma's doctor appointment went, but I'm also the friend who spent more than one afternoon at happy hour with your grandparents at the assisted living facility, and loved it by the way.
I'm the sister who convinced you that it was more than acceptable to pee in a department store clothing rack when we were kids, but I'm also the sister who took you to the Spam Museum to celebrate your successful cancer treatment.
I'm the neighbor who borrowed your air matress pump and never returned it, but I'm also the neighbor who helped your child get her dream job.
In my 15,870 days I've come to realize that putting energy into trying to pretend I'm something I'm not is a waste of my days. I'm flawed and I make mistakes, but more often than not I get it right.
If I'm lucky I'll have another 15,870 days to experience and learn from. What I do know is that I have today, and tomorrow I'll have tomorrow. I don't even regret the mistakes of yesterday because they set in motion who I am and where I am today.
It's not my birthday, but today I celebrate my 15,870 days. Tomorrow I'll celebrate and be thankful for 15,871 days and so on and so on, striving to remain perfectly imperfect along the way.
1 comment:
You sound pretty awesome, to me, Ms. Natalie :-). Several years ago, a cohort of mine introduced to me a phrase by the amazing baseball coach, Mr. Yogi Berra. At the time, I was freaking out ridiculously, about a lengthy presentation I was expected to give to my colleagues about a new and incredibly intricate blood cell analyzer that was the bedrock of our new company. My cohort was much more technically competent than was I, so we spent some time nAiling down my belief in this way -out -there technology. Then, finally, just think about Yogi Berra!! And then my friend introduced to me, the best single phrase, EVER, that, for whatever reason, and for whatever indstry, ALWAYS helped me, in work, in sports, in snuggling a five year old granddaughter, or a twenty-five year old in need of,..well,.....snuggling...
-"All you can do,..is...all you can do!" Gosh, I do so wish that had nbeen made more clear. Grrrrr...?, jesus was not about helping s finishingwants help, he does,he foiuf. .
Ppp
Post a Comment