Juggling Extraordinaire

As I was driving home from work the other day, I started feeling the usual sense of panic rising up in my throat. The typical thoughts entered my head...I was later than I wanted to be getting my kids. What was I going to make for supper? How could I make it and simultaneously give my children the attention they deserve? When was I going to get my butt down to the gym? What work had to be completed that night when the kids went to bed and what work could be put on the back burner?

As all those thoughts were swirling through my head, I thought, how does a juggler do it? How do they keep all those balls in the air at the same time? At any given time my one woman juggling act is a complete sham with balls flying all over the place. I'm lucky if I can confidently get one up in the air.

That's when I realized, they don't.

If you ever watched a juggler, you realize that at any given time they have a few balls perfectly suspended in the air, one ball on the way down, and one ball that was just thrown back up. Juggling doesn't mean keeping all the balls up simultaneously. It means keeping up as many balls as you can by giving them boosts every now and then.

This began to ease the feeling of failure that so often comes. It's OK if my 'supper' ball starts to fall because I run through a drive thru. The next night I can give it a boost with a healthy dinner. That may make my 'kids' ball begin its downward descent, but after supper I will propel it back up with some reading and snuggle time. This means my 'house' ball may take a dip. After the kids are in bed, I can toss it up while I shove the dishes in the dishwasher. Unfortunately, by bedtime the 'me' ball has started to drop down. I'm just too exhausted to give it a good shove. If that's the only ball that gets dropped in my juggling act today, I consider myself a success. There's always tomorrow when I can perfect my one woman juggling act.