Important or Urgent?

I am ever so optimistically proud of myself so far this week. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot in the name of my new year’s resolution on several fronts, and I’ve found a new tool.

Is this important or urgent? 

This is my new mantra. Sometimes it can be both, but sometimes something is just urgent while being really unimportant in the grand scheme of life. I like my new mantra. It’s helping me come to grips with my standards and expectations with a whole new perspective.

For one, I have bagged up 195 clothing items to take to Goodwill. And if it would stop with the the rainy drizzle, I might actually even manage to get everything dropped off this week too. I can’t even go into why there were 195 unnecessary clothing items in my home. There just isn’t a good answer to be found… kids grow, adults lose weight and change sizes, but none of it lets me off the hook for the amount of clutter we have been collecting in our closets. Shame on me.

Two, I threw away (THREW AWAY) three pairs of flip flops, multiple orphaned socks, and ratty underwear. Normally I do not throw clothing items away. I didn’t think I had that bone in my body, always thinking someone somewhere might find my worn out things useful. We even use old t-shirts in the garage for messy projects (for crying out loud!), but this is one of the many lies I’ve decided to finally retire.

My crud is literally just crud, toss it, move on.

Three, daughter has eaten at school for the last few days and NO ALLERGY EMERGENCIES have emerged so far!!!

Actually this totally should be number one in the scheme of things, but I digress. It took some Lamaze breathing on my part, a grandparent standing by when I wasn’t within a half minute drive of the school, and several antsy communications to pre-warn her teacher of possible impending doom, but the triumphant smile on my daughters face after her first day of being just like all the other kids in her class was priceless.

I have since then thanked all the ladies involved in watching out for my daughter’s well-being (in person), and call me romantic, but I believe these women are honestly looking out for her best interests. God has certainly blessed us in this arena.

Four, I went to my son’s first spelling bee last week. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal for me personally, and had even tried to reign in his enthusiasm in the hopes of diverting a broken heart when he ultimately didn’t win the bee. Can we say buzz kill? Instead I lost about three years off my own life while I held my breath the entire time my child took his turn, every time. I was more proud of his efforts to remain calm and master his nerves than I can possibly express, and my little boy came in FOURTH place!

No, he did not out and out win, but he was the top boy speller in the whole school (since the top three were all girls). This little fact of gender has put my son on cloud nine and forced me to reassess my instincts. Yes, we worked on preparing for the spelling bee, quizzing him at dinner times and talking about how to channel your own sense of calm, but in the end it was my son who made the extra effort. He’s the one who wrote all the words on the preparatory list one last time the day before the bee.

Even more amazing, he’s the only child who managed to spell a word he couldn’t pronounce. I’m still at a loss for how you manage to spell a word you can’t say, but he did. And I am the proudest parent on the planet. I doubt I could be prouder if he had actually won first place. We’ve made a huge deal of his success at home and to channel my beloved Harry Potter, my son is definitely head boy by my standards.

So there it is, a good start to the week (and I didn’t even mention my son’s plans to have a chef salad today for lunch). I’m learning to focus on the important instead of the urgent, and miraculously it seems to highlight the good things in my life.

The muddy dog foot prints seem urgent, but really they just aren’t that important.

Noticing my daughter and husband curled up watching cartoons together yesterday… totally important, although not remotely urgent.

You see… I’m getting the hang of it slowly. Grandma Moo Cows would be proud, and that is really saying something.