she's come undone...

i read a certain book a long, long, time ago.  i have started, stopped, and re-started reading multiple books since this one, but this pick was one of those "retrieve and never put down" pieces.  the title was "she's come undone"  by wally lamb.  it was one that queen oprah suggested, so how could i not digest it in one single sitting!

it was a super-deep story that somehow made you laugh, feel sad, and deeply connected all at once.  now, i am telling you my life does not resemble the main character's an ounce; however, the emotions she experiences and the ups and downs she encounters resemble every single one of our own lives.  now i know your name might not be delores BUT i swear you will get this woman.

"she's come undone"....huh.....what an apt title for this stage in the game for me.  while we all live lives full of blessings, we also experience elements of pain and momentary setbacks that challenge us to love continually and cling to daily courage to come out on top.

now ladies (and the few and far between gentlemen that read my rants), i am not talking on an incredibly deep level here.  do NOT, i repeat, do not read too far into the philosophical undertone.  what i am trying to say, cut and dry this time, is that our lives are flipping fabulous.  really, they are.  we all have it made.  even though we all do not "have" everything (perfect marriages, to-the-tee children, cookie-cutter families, millionaire checking accounts, etc), we do have full lives.  our cups overfloweth....plain and simple.

what i am getting at is that we all certainly can have little bumps that rock us.....a mean phone call, a gipped coif from our favorite stylist, a diaper that ends up with remnants on our favorite blouse, a snippy remark from a coworker or dear friend, an entree at our favorite restaurant that is taken off the menu, etc.  see.........bumps happen all of the time.  the double dare challenge to us, though, is to rise above it.  acknowledge it.  don't run away or pretend it didn't happen....but then move the heck on.

we are all coming undone.  some of us admit it.  some of us do not.  i think our goal, regardless of how we portray our lives to others, is to do so with the grace god t-totally promises us he always has in our corner.

in spite of the junk that satan (and sometimes our nearest and dearest) throw at us, if we can laugh and move on with it we will totally soak up the richness our lives DO abound with.  i truly believe i am the queen of not soaking up the joy that i am surrounded with daily.  let me openly share some of my "awful" recent setbacks....

1.  2 pairs of broken flip flops in awkward outings
2.  a crappy dinner that i worked all afternoon to prepare for my hubby that pays for all of the groceries
3.  a piece of spice i found wedged in my teeth that no one cared to help me expunge
4.  back to back vomiting children (it lasted a day a piece but i acted like world war 27 had occurred)
5.  the inability to finish a nice dinner because my children demand mommy read with them

i sound absolutely ridiculous.  i do.  no need to think it and not deliver the message.  i am typing my top 5 list of sad things in the life of maggie parsley and side grinning at the craziness of it all.  while i am coming undone 24/7 as a mommy/wife/friend/etc, i am full of miracles and love that god and others fill my bones with.  we are all unraveling....but the unraveling makes the magic even more fantastic.