Breathe

This is something I wrote a couple of years ago while my brother was in Iraq.....thought I'd share it.

I

t always surprises me when things happen out of the blue whether they are for the good or bad it still gets to me. Take for instance recently I was worried about a ton of things and completely stressed out. I was so stressed out that for the first time in over 2 years my cycle was off schedule. I was stressed about taking final exams, and then stressed about what my grades would be, then stressed about work, and then about finding another place to live. And on top of that stress I was still stressed about my brother, so I ask you how in the heck did I make it through all that stress to where I am right now without some heavy drinking?  Well let me tell you what I think happened….I just gave up, I told myself not to worry about it that things would work out and everything would fall into place. And miraculously enough things DID fall into place. A couple of days after my finals my roommate and I signed a lease on a new house, I passed BOTH finals and got a B+ in both classes.  My work started to become more organized and less chaotic and my brother is coming home!

I

 know growing up your parents always tell you to put faith in God and that He will get you through it. You know that famous saying “If God brings you to it, He’ll bring you through it”. Well I was chanting that saying for over a month and eventually I began to believe it and the worry just seemed to drop from my shoulders. Of course I’m still worried but not nearly as much as I was before and it is just an amazing feeling. To walk outside on a beautiful day and realized that I have NOTHING to do but enjoy God’s beauty and I find that so amazing and something that I think everyone should try.  One beautiful summer day just walk outside and breathe (of course if you’re in the South that may be difficult depending on the humidity).  I can honestly say that there is nothing that I have experienced yet so rewarding as walking outside on a beautiful summer day and just standing there and enjoying God’s beauty.  Or better yet taking a drive and see His beauty.

R

ecently my friends and I drove to Nashville, TN to celebrate my birthday and that was possibly one of the most beautiful drives ever.  We live in Mississippi so we headed north and passed all of this beautiful hill country and it just took my breath away. The drive was so peaceful that once we got outside of Nashville we started looking at the clouds and tried to guess what they looked like. Ya’ll we are grown women and we did this!! It felt so great to just act like a kid again and I think that as adults we forget how to just have fun. Now I know many adults who have fun but they need some kind of influence to have fun or money to spend to have fun.  Having fun like a kid can be free, all you need is your imagination and the world is your play ground.

T

his is probably one of the things wrong with our country today (among many other things). We have forgotten how to have fun and we have forgotten what is really important in life.  Instead of having fun we rush through the day trying to be better, make more money, sale more things, buy more things, be more, experience more, work more….just more and in all it is killing us.  It may sound corny but we have forgotten how to stop and smell the roses and until we learn to stand back and just breathe then our nation will continue to just float away from us.

I

’m not a big religious person, but I am becoming more and more spiritual. Heck at my age as a woman in the South you can’t be single and not have some sort of spirituality otherwise you’ll go crazy! Especially when you start noticing people younger than you having their 2^nd child! I mean that will really knock you for a loop if you don’t have something spiritual to remind you that God has a plan for you and that everything happens for a reason.  It’s times like these when I have to keep reminding myself that I should just let the cards fall where they may but I mean man that is tough!  Being single in Mississippi is rare! There are not that many people who are my age that are single let alone single men! And it’s times like that when I tell myself that I should have stayed in Texas at least then the odds are in my favor! Lol! but seriously it gets really tiring telling myself that there is someone out there for me and God is going to bring us together when He feels like I’m ready, b/c all I can think is that I’m ready now! Shoot I’m not getting any younger!

S

ee this is an instance where I have to tell myself to just Breathe! So when you feel life is starting to get to complicated and you see yourself envying other people for what they have and what you don’t have, just take a step back and breathe. Remind yourself of all the good things you have in your life b/c no matter how crappy you think things are, there is ALWAYS something good. Whether it be kids, a pet, a place to live, food, clothes on your back, food in your pantry, a job, a car, or whatever. You have something that not everyone has you have something that no one has so just be thankful and give thanks to whatever God you believe in, because not everyone has one or all of those things. But everyone has one thing in common and that is the ability to Breathe!