Coming Out of the Fog

Morning fog in the summer near LaPine, Oregon.

The girls and I made a trip with my Mom this summer to visit my sister and her family in their new home in Oregon. We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us and we set out early in hopes that the girls would sleep a few hours and that we'd be able to get home at a decent hour. We kept ourselves entertained with an audio book that my little sister, Annie, had been telling us we had to read. You've probably heard about it. It's called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. And, let me tell you, it has been just that: absolute MAGIC!

The day after we got back, the girls and I began immediately to go through our items categorically one-by-one beginning with clothing and to decide whether each item brought us joy. We then organized and tidied up the place. I got rid of a 25 gallon garbage bag full of papers that I had filed away. Who really needs to keep so many paper trails? I have felt so liberated. The great thing is that now that I have tidied up and gotten rid of unnecessary clutter, I have time to really focus on the important things in my life. There is nothing to fog up my mind or bog me down with so many things to take care of. 

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a training for school. It was an unpaid training and would require getting a babysitter, etc. I was going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to attend and in the end, I decided to go for it. It was a Steven R. Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Training in preparation for a grant we received to be a Leader in Me School. This training came at the perfect time when I have been able to get my life a little more organized. I was able to reflect on what I really want as an end-result in my life and write a personal mission statement. I have been struggling with getting up early enough to exercise and read my scriptures before the day gets too crazy. And that's just one little area of struggle. I have all kinds of things that I need to improve, but I feel like this workshop gave me the tools and mindset to work on them. At a time when I would normally be a stressed disaster (just as I'm trying to get everything at school together), I am feeling very optimistic and excited to overcome myself, to exercise daily and spend time studying my scriptures so that I can be the best wife, mom, teacher, sister, daughter, friend, visiting teacher, etc. that I can be. 

And today, I finally did it. I got out of bed before anyone else and I left the house and went for a jog. And I listened to my scriptures while I did it. And it felt so good.

And this is the sunrise that I got to witness . . . just me and the singing birds. It feels good to be out of the fog. 

August Sunrise. A new beginning as the fog clears.