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Often you run into obstacles when in pursuit of a goal that requires a bit of stretching on your part.  You know, those crazy things that rise up that put walls made of 10 feet concrete in your way.  I know many people who think that’s God’s way of saying, “You don’t really want this.”   I believe it’s life’s test to see if we are serious.

Late Tuesday night two of my girls were doing the dishes (why late at night is a whole other story) when my oldest daughter came running up the stairs, “Stop, stop!  You’re flooding the basement!”

Now, we live in an older home and the pipes have to be flushed about once a year.   This summer my husband had already had the plumbers flush the pipes, so I thought it was something stuck in our kitchen system.  It’s been known to send water into the basement before.  So I told them to stop washing dishes and we’d take care of it in the morning.  No way I was going to tackle pipes under that sink late at night – half a load of dirty dishes waiting was no big deal.  We mopped up water, I finished writing my word count, and went to bed.

So yesterday I got up and messed with the pipes under the sink.  Hmmm.  Nothing there.  Then someone flushed the toilet upstairs.  My daughter comes screaming up the stairs there’s more water in the basement.  The light bulb comes on.  I run down and fling open my laundry room door – there is a layer of sludge all over the wall and floor.  Yeah…. you know what it was made of.  I gagged.

That was the beginning of yesterday.  They say when it rains it pours and I had a fair share of deluges one after the other.  Knowing attitude makes a difference, I said over and over (sometimes with gritted teeth while shoveling poo): I AM A BRIGHT AND HAPPY CHEERY PERSON. I AM HAPPY. LIFE IS EASY. I AM HAVING A GOOD DAY. And by the end of the day, it was true.  The plumbers came and we’re all fixed up.  The last time they came out they hadn’t cleaned one of the lines.  Dear oh dear. I took my youngest daughter on a Mommy/Daughter date I had promised and we had a great time.  All “mommy” obligations fulfilled.

But at 10:43 I sat down.  I hadn’t written a stitch all day.

This was when life looked at me and said, “Are you serious?”  My limbs were cramping, my ankle swollen, my head had that buzz you get when you’re overtired, and I could barely keep my eyes open.  I also had one of my four yr. old twins in my bed saying, “Mommy, when are YOU coming to bed?”  I heard all the voices in my head telling me no one was going to blame me if I didn’t write.  Knowing those were the voices of failure, I fired up the laptop and laid beside him, propped up on pillows.

Ever try to write like that when you’re that exhausted?

My goal was to get my overall word count above 4000 words.  That way I didn’t feel too far behind.  I managed to eek out 864 words which put me a little over a 4300 total word count.  I finally quit at one o’clock.  I knew my writing wasn’t very productive, but I felt good about what I had done.  I had proven to myself I was serious – sludge or no sludge, I could meet my goals.

Hopefully life got the message too.

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