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Endure the moment

Yesterday was one of those daycare days that normally has the ability to have me running for cover the moment the last child has left for the day. But after all was said and done, I felt like I had conquered the day, not the other way around.
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Yesterday was one of those daycare days that normally has the ability to have me running for cover the moment the last child has left for the day. But after all was said and done, I felt like I had conquered the day, not the other way around.

There were few, if any, successes wrapped within the day. I endured. I pushed through. I dealt with what I had to deal with. And I moved on.

The day was moderately normal until the after-lunch-and-pre-nap rituals started to play out. Add a trial run for a new family who will be starting soon, and it was definitely a challenging hour.

One hour. One hour out of 10. That isn't so bad, is it?

There have been days when a rough patch like that would have done me in. I would have folded. I would have admitted defeat and caved in to the pressures of a small piece of the day and let it overtake and overwhelm me.

That one hour was wrapped inside of 10 additional hours of normal. Ten hours of nothing spectacular. Ten hours of following regular, old, tried and true routines. Ten hours of okay made that challenging hour bearable.

Such is life.

If one piece of your world is out of kilter and hard to bear, it can be more easily endured if the remainder of your life remains stable. One part unruly to four parts stable and predictable equals a better ability to cope.

It is when too many pieces of your world are out of balance at the same time and a person loses their equilibrium that it feels so much more difficult. Answers start to feel illusive when too many variables are unknown.

I have been on the listening end of many conversations where I hear people fighting to regain a status quo within their life. There is a quiet desperation when a person is struggling to keep their head above water. When this puzzle called life becomes so mangled, it may feel impossible to figure out how to piece it all together again.

Remain calm. Breathe. Ten deep breaths in and out will buy you at least 20 seconds and will assist in regaining composure. Grab your oxygen mask and "save yourself first." Once you are okay, you are in a better spot to "save others" or regain control over one other piece of your world that is running amok.

If you are fortunate, as I was in the very core of our Terribly Taxing Daycare Day, nap time will follow the crisis point. A period of complete and utter peace and solitude grounds me in a way that little else does.

Another small thing that made a huge difference in my ability to cope was to focus on the moment. I wasn't trying to squeeze more into my day than time allowed. I had cleared the slate of all-that-must-be-done and all I had to contend with was the "moment, "not everything else I had hoped to squeeze into the moments that surrounded it.

Ground yourself in ways you know fill your soul. Nourish yourself with that which you need to sustain the feeling. Every day. You simply never know when you will need to call on those reserves.

Endure the moment. It won't last forever. Whether it is good, bad or anything in between, it doesn't last forever.