Today I noticed…red clay all over the floor of our kitchen. It just kept appearing. A spot here. A spot there. My middle two children had just returned from basketball camp. I zeroed in on them. I sighed exasperatedly as I wiped up the clay. I turned around. There it was again! I wiped it up again. Then I left the room and noticed more! I blamed my barefoot daughter for taking her shoes off at camp – nope she didn’t. Also, her feet were clean. Also? There was no clay where she had been, but there it was again. Finally, I stopped running my head and rushing around to clean it up. When I picked them up at the school I had slipped in a big muddy spot of red clay. I was still wearing my sandals. It was me. Talk about a humbling aha moment. After apologies and laughs, I took off my sandals, and then thoroughly wiped up the floor.
I thought about how many times I rush to blame my children, my spouse, the dog. All for things that I probably have created myself. I blame others for my own mess. Frequently. I suppose I feel justified because I clean up their messes, on the regular I might add. The dogs? They have never cleaned up my messes, unless my messes involved food. But, only tasty food. And, perhaps, they didn’t even clean those up all the way.
Today I noticed that I need to be more zen. I tell my twelve year old he needs to let things go. Ha. Pot, meet kettle. I need to let things go. I need to stop cleaning up their messes. I can focus on my own mess. Trust me, it’s big enough to occupy my time.