Finding Silver Linings

Let me tell you…the week before last week was a WEEK.

We had a lot going on in our little family, but we had an ironclad plan in place: we would be moving from Wichita Falls, TX, to the DFW area, on Thursday. We had a truck scheduled (hopefully a better experience than last time) and all of the other things we had going on would have been done by then.

By “other things,” I mainly mean the speaking event I committed to on Tuesday at the Learning Forward Texas conference. Since we were moving on Thursday, I would be able to focus on being prepared and doing a great job. Once that was done, I could shift my focus back to the big move.

But you know what they say about best-laid plans, right?

At the last minute, the move got switched from Thursday to Monday. Not only did this leave us 2 less days to prepare, but also placed the move squarely one day before I was scheduled to speak.

“It will be fine,” I said. “I’ll put everything I need for the conference in my suitcase,” I said.

I had it all outlined to perfection. I figured it would take 3 hours to load, then the drive to our new city was about 3 hours. It would take another 3 hours to unload (maybe even less because unloading tends to go faster, right?). I’d have plenty of time to find what I needed to be a fully functional professional the next day.

But the universe said no. Our movers finally finished unloading at 1 AM and by then, I was exhausted. But the next day, I got my tired behind up anyway.

I grabbed my suitcase and got ready with the few necessities I had available, then headed off to teach my session. It was on reducing drivers of organizational burnout to professional learning leaders across the state of Texas. Despite not feeling perfectly ready, I was excited.

I mean, was I my typical put-together self? Not so much. I was still in a professional, albeit very wrinkled, suit. I was overly exhausted from the move. It left me feeling less-than-thrilled with my tired and wrinkly life choices because this was not my norm.

But you know what? I was also loving it.

Despite being somewhat out-of-sorts, I was about to do something I absolutely love. Not only that, but I got to see people at the conference I absolutely love, too.

It only took me 45 minutes to drive to the conference, instead of the hours it would have been from the old house. And when I was done, I got to go to my new home, where my family was waiting for me, instead of having to stay in a hotel.

Those things made the tiredness and wrinkledness totally worth it.

Life loves to throw us curveballs, you know? We can plan everything to perfection, but chances are there’s going to be at least one kink (if we’re lucky) that pops up.

We have two choices at that point: we can either stress and freak out or we can roll with it and ride the wave the best we can. It might not be perfect or the way we pictured in our heads, but it can still be pretty spectacular.

Here’s why: life is so much sweeter when we can find the silver linings in even the harder things.

That’s my wish for you and me: may we find silver linings in everything. May we let go of the expectations of perfection we place on ourselves and just embrace the good things we’re able to experience.

That goes for even the times when we make marginally poor life choices, too. You know, like picking up your entire life and moving the day before an important event. 😉