What does being “you” look like today?

  A friend of mine recently posed the premise that she turned a corner when she realized her life wasn’t separate areas of the roles she plays during the day. She said that somehow in her mind, she would separate the jobs before her by the titles/areas they required and that most of all, her internal voice and rules didn’t allow for the lines to be crossed….e.g.  being a good mom didn’t happen while being a good worker…being a good worker didn’t happen while being a good friend…etc


  The more I thought about what being “me” meant I realized that in the last two decades, the rules have changed.  In my twenties, decorum at work would mean that not even personal calls were accepted in my university office….there was  not any flexibility in my hours or schedule….boundaries were clear and defined.  In my thirties one could “take off”  or “extend hours” to mix work and family, but the lines were still pretty darn rigid…..Today’s workplace is very different….
    The more I’ve thought about what being “me” looks like…..I wear a good many hats…..Wife, mom, stepmom, Events Coordinator, wordsmith, friend, homeschooler, Gifted Specialist, Stepfamily Speaker, volunteer, Creative Strategist for businesses, cook, friend, artist…(notice Laundry Queen didn’t make the list)….well…truthfully when I applied my friends rule of defining being “me” as doing a bite or entree’ of whichever combination makes up my plate today….I,too, began to see my world a little differently. Somehow in my head the days were only allowed in two or three BIG categories:  home, work, parenting, church …when the truth is I do all of them in parts of each day each week……whew…no wonder I get overwhelmed…I am trying to make a jillion things fit into 4 categories…..ease up there girl….
and so I  have….
   What does being “me” look like today?
It looks like being a wife and kissing her husband goodbye to work, ignoring the laundry pile for one more day (or three), sitting down for eggs and toast with my son, it looks like baking cookies early for a party, it looks like taking a daughter on errands and giggling as we make time for new nail polish together, it looks like uploading a completed project to a publisher in Atlanta, it looks like going getting a tire fixed while hanging out with my daughter….it looks like driving to Georgia in the afternoon….where I’ll be working on an HGDiTV event for a day and a half then go shopping later that day….
….turns out my life is very much like my art…..vibrant, busy, colorful, and evolving…..and the more I let go of what I think it should be….the more God seems to bring forth the pictures in it He created……after all, being “me” most of all is allowing Him to lead me….even if the path was not the one I thought we were on!
    A simple joy: recognizing that being me today may be hectic… but even hectic days are part of being me….and choosing to include things that matter to me in my life is important….even if they are not always necessary….this is the life I have, if I want to be the mom who makes sure son has cookies for school, then today’s the day….he’ll graduate in another year….today daughter wants to be with mom running errands….another year she’ll be on her own…so we make time today….