Have you ever spilled glitter? Like, not just a smattering of glitter from a card, but actually spilled a packet, tube, or jar of glitter? I have been mostly fortunate, but my carefree no-glitter time came to an abrupt end the other night. I was cleaning up after dinner, tired (because, real talk, the days are longer when you’re socially distancing, and primarily staying home, with two energetic kiddos), and knocked a WHOLE PACKET of glitter off the counter, and onto my stove top. Did you fully understand that? A whole.packet.of.glitter. It might not look like a lot, but it was so much glitter.

I USED to be a freaker-outer, like get full on upset, angry, slam stuff, and use loud words to express frustrations. I read an article many moons ago that talked about how damaging that behavior is to tiny human brains and hearts, so I worked on becoming less freak-out-ish over little things that really, in the grand scheme of things, DON’T MATTER. However, ahem, I had to funnel all of my Jesus-please-control-my-mouth-and-actions-right-now to NOT act like a fool over this spilled glitter. True story.

That isn’t what this post is about, though, this summoning of control to not lose it when things don’t go your way ………….. This is about things you can control, and things you can’t control. Things you CAN control would be YOUR emotions, choices, words, effort, attitude, and general demeanor. Things you CAN’T control would be the above list, but about OTHERS. I can’t control when my 7 year old says “you’re just trying to ruin my day”, but I can control how I react to the outburst, allow her to sit with her feelings, and then enjoy the AWESOMENESS when she apologizes 2 minutes (ok, sure, sure, maybe not always that fast) later. It’s worth it to me, to control how I perceive the world, and fish out whether it’s something that I can really fix, or not. If not, the best answer is a cup of selflessness, with a heaping serving of grace mixed in.

I’m thinking about this today, and remembered the glitter incident, because all the craziness associated with a pandemic can really get people worked up. In a tizzy. Freak-out-ish. Sometimes, it’s warranted, but most of the time, it’s not. We can’t control what’s going on around us, but we can control how we react. We can react in a knee jerk fashion, spouting off at the mouth on social media, refusing to wear a mask because we feel it tramples our freedom, argue about conspiracies and politics, and overall be a grumpy Gus because 2020 stinks. OR, or, little lovelies, we can react with grace, understanding, compassion for others, and compassion for ourselves as we navigate truly unchartered waters. Like, let it go, do your best, think of others, and ENJOY this season as much as you can (but that’s another post, for another day). 2020 has been a year of REST, thought, adapting, and totally slowing down the pace to enjoy everything the day offers.

Friends, when I knocked over that packet of glitter, it was at the end of the day. I’m pretty sure I’d been on my feet all day, catering to small humans and four legged friends, making meal after meal, doing all the chores, listening to all the stories about Minecraft and answering all of the “Mommy, would you rather’s”. I had a split second to decide how I was going to take control of the situation, and I chose calm, grace, and a positive attitude…. at least the flames would be glittery for a day or so, right?!?!

Remember the things that you can control, and the things you can’t, and be as kind to yourself as you would have been to me over that silly packet of glitter. By the way, I did wait until the next day to clean it up, and it did take at least 5 minutes to fish out those teeny shimmery sparkles, but at least I did not let it wreck my night.

With Sunbeams and love,

Racheal Xx