Today’s guest blogger is Stephanie from A Professor’s Wife. She and I share a lot of similarities, including our Alma Mater {We Are… MARSHALL!} and I’m so excited to have her visiting today. Her writing is absolutely amazing and I love the stories that she shares. Today, she’s blogging about something that really hits home for me right now. Take it away, Stephanie…
Changes, challenges, tough choices, trials and tribulations. We’ve all experienced them at one time or another, and most of us are probably tackling them right now as we devour a fat piece of cheesecake. You’re probably familiar with the feelings that comes with these types of situations – fear, anxiety, denial, frustration, sadness, and most of all, the what now’s, why me’s and the how come’s – sometimes you deal in a positive way, sometimes you deal in a –well – not so pretty kind of way, as you watch your faith and spirituality dwindle. Me? I am about 50/50. Give me something huge, I tend to face it head-on; toss a minor inconvenience at me, and I may completely lose my ground.
Following some super anxiety-causing challenges that have affected me recently, I had to take a step back and evaluate myself. Here’s what I found:
- Love.
- Laughter.
- Trust.
- And most of all, Faith.
WOW! I’m sure you’re thinking, “this woman is a genius!”
For someone who normally lives her life in fast forward while still managing to dwell on the past and struggling to maintain an effective level of spirituality and trust in God, these were some easy-peasy discoveries that I’ve learned to actually apply to my day to day life.
In the past few years, I’ve faced the sudden death of a parent, being a first-generation college student and the first in my family to move away from home, a sibling’s health scare, a close family’s scary (yet thankfully successful) battle with breast cancer, my husband’s journey through grad school and job search, and now, our future move and life in New York. I can’t simply look up the word “anxiety” in a bible reference guide and find the answers to life’s challenges. I have the over-analyzing, truth-and-fact-seeking characteristics that form my “must conquer all” personality, which can make things way harder than necessary. When I finally started “letting go”, I began to truly appreciate all of the love and laughter in my life while giving hope and faith an honest effort through all of the challenges I’ve taken on, and found that the simplest things make life absolutely beautiful.
Love.
feeling the warmth of my husband’s arm as he links it through mine and we walk across the parking lot after dinner at Applebee’s
looking into my cat’s big, gold eyes and seeing his sweet soul
making sure I return the love back to all of those who send it my way
Laughter.
small talk w/co-workers that leads to lots of laugh-filled procrastination
sharing a gut-busting laugh with my husband at least daily.
listening to my mom talk about her latest shoe purchase, and smile because it’s an obsession we share
Trust.
Accepting that I can’t control every single thing in my life.
Letting others’ advice, help, and insight in to my life
Appreciating all change for what it is and it’s lead to
Faith.
Allowing myself to let go and live – because once you let go of fear, you naturally let faith in.
To sum it all up, try this: look within, breathe, let yourself feel, love, laugh, and enjoy all that is life.
There. Feel better?
About Guest Blogger
