Miracle in the Mess: Finding Joy When Life Feels Overwhelming

Good Sunday morning to you!

It's raining.

The french doors are open.

The cool air and smell of rain are floating all around me.

God I love this.

After a long hot summer with the doors and windows closed, the house is breathing a sigh of relief, herself. (Why do I call our home a "her," not sure, other than it feels so true - and this house is ALIVE... with her own ideas.) ;-)

What a glorious day.

And inside of this day was a messy dining table and kitchen and living room that just hours before was filled with some of our beloveds for the Halloween cookie decorating festivities.

Cookie decorating has been a tradition for many decades... Tiff brought it into my life almost 19 years ago and ever since then we decorate the damn cookies.... ha ha.

Yesterday had its own chain of events.

While I was working at the office I kept getting a wash of delight and taste buds watering knowing that I would be eating the delicious cookies in a couple of hours. (They typically happen once a year, sometimes twice if we get lucky).

Tiff's sugar cookies... OMG!

So good.

They're a labor of love (as any of you sugar-cookie-from-scratch-makers, know all about).

And then this frightful text dinged my phone...

So as you read this text from Tiff, what do you notice?

Do you see yourself here?

The frustration.

Dealing with pain.

Getting overwhelmed.

Life happening.

Feeling like you're going to lose it.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you replied to this message and said YEP! This resonates with me.

BEING HUMAN IS MESSY (all caps intended... it's THAT serious).

And because I think you may be wondering, I did find the pumpkin-shaped-non-frosted sugar cookies.

Brought those bad boys home.

When I got here I jumped in to help get everything ready for the rush of wildness coming to the house.

Threw the plastic table cover on, loaded up the bowls of candy and frosting to decorate with.

Tiff had the homemade chili warming in the family size pot.

Fritos scoops, cheese, sour cream... bowls (btw don't use Chinet paper bowls for hot chili... BAD idea), and a house full of people we love.

We ate.

We talked loud.

We laughed.

And this...

Ha ha ha ha ha. Ridiculous. And adorable.

Even with no sugar, the taste of Tiff's no-sugar sugar cookies beat the store bought cookies hands down. (The store bought cookies tasted like ass but were decorateable, and that's what counts.)

There it is.

Life is messy.

Overwhelm happens.

Pain is real.

And yet... joy and peace and happiness are also there within the mess. Sometimes we have to take a long slow deep breath in the middle of whatever's happening and remember, there's always a spark of possibility and potentiality somewhere in the mix.

So if your day feels messy.

Or something very hard is happening in your life.

As you get through it (you will get through it), remember to take plenty of nice-long-slow-deep-breaths and keep your eye open for the miracle that lives in the middle of it all.

The miracle could be something as small as a whiff of peace, or hope, or possibility... BREATHE it in and be with the moment letting it wash over you like the cool air through my french doors on this very rainy Sunday morning.

BOTH things can exist, the hard AND the good.

The only caveat is the fact that your brain must be willing to entertain that the good can also exist within the hard.

And once you're willing to keep an eye open for the miracle.

The miracle will show itself.

And miracles come in ALL shapes and sizes.

May your miracle find you today.

You deserve every single good thing.

Love,

Jack

P.S. Some of us have a hard time letting the good in until the mess is cleaned up. We hold it all together, handle everything, and wait for things to calm down before we let ourselves breathe. If that sounds familiar, there may be a pattern running underneath it. Pattern Finder will show you which one.