Do you ever wake up wishing it was still the weekend? Or that maybe the evening would last a little bit longer? I have, so many times. To be blessed with 5 beautiful, amazing, funny, intelligent (and stubborn!) daughters and then not to be able to spend quality time together let alone enough time together is what has been the driving force for change and the desire to live life a little differently.
Between Mark and myself we have spent so many days, evenings and weekends working. It had meant that for months, even years we had just passed each other with a hello, goodbye as we switched from one of us working while the other looked after the girls, to the other way around. It was heartbreaking and yet we didn’t know any other way than to just work harder and work more, maybe you can relate?
The journey to living life on our terms has been… Hmmmm, well challenging to say the least. We have chosen pathways that led to dead ends, sometimes feeling that we were going more backwards than forwards. Pathways that cost us more money than we made. Faced challenges just like many of you that meant we hit rock bottom. We are still not where we want to be yet… But, we are on the Journey.
The Reality
It is easy to look at an instagram picture and think that it all looks rosey or watch a youtube video and think we have it all together, that we all get along all the time and that our children are happy, well behaved and …. sorry I just had to wipe the tears of laughter away … so yeah, let’s get real for a second.
- We make mistakes (so many mistakes)
- Our children fight (verbally and physically)
- We sometimes need space from each other
- We are still figuring it all out
You know what I love though? It is that no matter what we keep going and we keep going as a family. It sucks when things go wrong and yet I appreciate the lessons and that our children get to see that when things do not go the way you want, you pick yourself up and keep going.
The Journey to Live on Our Terms
The journey to living life on our terms has come and will continue to come with other challenges too. Criticism from others, that comes in all forms. The strange thing is many people think something is a bad idea until they see it work out but you have to go through the journey before that happens. So, if you are looking to live life on your terms be prepared for many people to be less than supportive before they get to the ‘Wow, I so wish I was living like that’ stage. And be prepared for it to not go according to plan more than it does and yet I challenge you to understand that something not going to plan is not evidence that it is not going to work out.
That is something we have needed to remind ourselves of many times.
Though in between those moments there is such clarity, such drive, determination and an inner knowing. An inner knowing that the direction everyone else is going is not the direction for me and my family. Once you see something, good or bad you can never un-see it. Well, this inner knowing, once you have it, has the same principle, you can never un-have-it.
What’s next?
Following our hearts, intuition, that inner knowing. In fact not just following it but fulling embracing it. Riding the rough with the smooth, showing our girls it is ok to take risks, to fall, to fully embrace a direction that is different from the masses. To work at creating what matters most to us, experiences with the time we have available to us.
I have said goodbye to too many people that I really care about way before their life was fully lived, knowing that for some of them things still needed to be said, experiences still needed to be had, dreams still needed to be met.
For us as long as we are moving towards ours we embrace the Journey for it is not just the destination that is important it is the journey in itself!
