caution: thoughts ahead

I'm sitting down in a cliché over stimulating Chuck E Cheese on a Friday night. Somewhere between kid-screaming chaos and video game crescendos. I'm distracted by lights that blink so rapidly I quietly wonder how anyone hasn't had a siezure yet. Or maybe they have. Maybe this mouse has it out for us all. I contemplate mouse double agendas...both scary mutant giant mouses and the seemingly harmless ones that hide inconspicuously within corners of our homes. What is this world coming to?

After I reach this meditative trance, likely a result of all the blinky-flashy lights.......blink, blink, flash, blink, wait, blink, flash........I start to run through the emotions of the week.

My memory scans to the freshest emotion: a moment of our kids' last day of school. The heartfelt good byes and farewells that the entire school cheered out as they lined up in the hallways, watching the 5th graders walk down their elementary halls for the last time. My tear stained face as I watched silently, thinking about Caleb next year. 

Another moment, or collection of moments, at work this week. The strain and pull from an exhausted group of coworkers, trying their best to put on a brave face in unpredictable conditions. The back aches, the heart pulls, the ibuprofen inhaled in quantities unknown. The mental energy used, putting me into coma-sleep cycles at the end of the day.

The hopeful turned disappointing moment of the week where our summer plans changed. I won't go into too much detail, but flashes of my high school years came to me this week: coming up empty handed after countless auditions. 

Obviously the past few days have had it's ups and downs. A lot of different emotions and feelings and moments. With all of it I feel a sense of closing one chapter and opening another. Like in the flow of life this is all part of the plan. And our job is to get ourselves out there....be in the moments, feel the emotions, regardless of how much they may bring us joy or sadness. Learn about this crazy blinking, flashing world and appreciate it for what it is: a well thought out plan. Though I'm not completely convinced that the mouse isn't in on it...