Stop and Smell the Roses

 

Sometimes Life Rewrites Your To-Do List in Two Hours—And That's Okay

Tuesday morning. School runs, packed schedules, the usual chaos of getting everyone where they need to be. I was racing to get my kid to school on time when it happened.

The washing machine exploded. Water everywhere.

I think we all know that feeling. You've got your day mapped out, your priorities set, and then God has other plans.

The Cascade

One kid is under the weather and staying home anyway—it's a work admin day for me, and they're not 100% anyway. So that commitment gets crossed off. Now I'm dealing with water damage and no time to panic about it. The dryer vent is disconnected from the washing machine disaster, and it's not reattaching itself.

I had never done this before. I had no idea what I was doing. But I also had no choice. So I got to work.

The Breaking Point (And the Breakthrough)

Two hours into reattaching the dryer vent, I hit a wall. I was about to lose it. The frustration, the mess, the thing not cooperating—it all came to a head.

That's when I stopped. I stepped away. I took a mental health break right there in the middle of the project. I sat down, breathed, reset. Not after I finished. Not after I 'earned' it. I took it when I needed it most.

And then I got back to work. And you know what? I figured it out. I completed the repair. There's something about solving a real problem, about getting through the frustration and making something work, that changes your perspective.

You Deserve It

By the time the dryer vent was attached and the water was cleaned up, I needed to celebrate. So I treated myself. I bought gorgeous roses. And here's the best part—they were on sale.

Those flowers sitting on my table are a reminder that I handled what life threw at me that morning. That I showed up for my family. That I learned something new. That I recognized when I needed to pause and take care of myself—and then I did it anyway, in the middle of the chaos.

The Bigger Picture

My Tuesday didn't go according to plan. My to-do list got obliterated. But you know what did get done? What actually mattered. A child was cared for. A crisis was handled. A new skill was learned. And a person—me—was reminded that taking care of yourself isn't something you earn after you finish. It's something you do when you need it most.

God's plans might look different from ours. But when we trust the process, roll with the punches, and remember to show ourselves grace—and maybe buy ourselves some gorgeous sale-priced roses—we realize those other plans might have been exactly what we needed all along.

You're doing better than you think. And you deserve those roses, too.

Dr K