Coffee, Canines, and Chaos: A Saturday of Surrender

Saturday mornings are for sleeping in, right? Wrong. In my world, they’ve become an Olympic sport of self-love routines, starting at the ungodly hour of 4:45 am. This particular Saturday, I was determined to break the pattern and get some extra z’s. But as fate would have it, my black lab, Olive, had a different plan, sounding her ‘I’m starving’ alarm at 4:47 am. There I was, in bed, trying my best to ignore her, secretly hoping Kelly would spring into action. Spoiler alert: she didn’t. 

Reluctantly, I got up, fed the dogs, and crawled back into bed, optimistically thinking I could salvage some sleep. But nope, both dogs were back in bed faster than I could say “snooze.” Now I’m wrestling for bed space, just as I start to drift off, Kelly joins the battle for territory against our canine invaders. “Olive! Get off my legs!” she yells. There go my dreams of sleeping in. 

Fast forward through a brief truce in the bed space wars, and I’m jolted awake by a phone call from one of our renters. Ah, the joys of landlord life on a Saturday morning! “The hot water heater is spraying water everywhere!” is the frantic message I receive. Wonderful, just the kind of wake-up call you hope for.  

As I’m about to leap into action, Kelly, ever the calm in my storm, casually declares, “I’ll handle it.” Wait, what? My brain struggles to process this. She’s leisurely making coffee while a rental property apocalypse unfolds, and there I am, witnessing a whole new level of chill I didn’t know existed. My mind’s in overdrive, screaming, “Why is she so calm? Why is she making coffee? There’s a crisis!” But Kelly’s nonchalance about the whole situation made me pause.

In that moment, I realized how my reaction to discomfort – leaping into action to avoid feeling helpless. But there’s Kelly, embodying the zen master I aspire to be, handling chaos with the grace of a ballerina. And I’m just… sitting there, feeling like a tightly wound spring about to snap.

Then it hits me – this frantic need to control and fix everything is my safety blanket, my way of keeping the chaos at bay. But at what cost? It’s like I’ve been running a marathon with no finish line, exhausting myself for the illusion of control. I’ve been so busy trying to manicure life’s unruly garden that I’ve missed the beauty of the wildflowers growing in the cracks.

As I lay there, contemplating this newfound revelation, I can feel the shift inside me. It’s like watching a storm pass, leaving a strange calm in its wake. I start to realize that maybe, just maybe, letting go isn’t about giving up control – it’s about finding true contentment. It’s about trusting the flow of life and the people in it, including Kelly, who, by the way, has handled the situation better than I ever could.

So, here’s to embracing the chaos, to finding joy in the unpredictable, and to learning that sometimes, the best thing you can do is… nothing. It’s a lesson in humility, in trust, and in the surprising ease that comes

from surrender. Who knew that stepping back could actually be a step forward?

This Saturday morning, while not the sleep-in paradise I had envisioned, turned out to be an enlightening journey from control to surrender. I discovered that my quest for control was more about fear than about dishes or laundry. It was a fear of chaos, of not being enough, of losing grip. But in that moment of stillness, I found a new way to navigate life – one that involves less doing and more being.

In this newfound space, I am learning to ask for help, to slow down, and to appreciate the magic that unfolds when I’m not frantically trying to orchestrate every moment. It’s not just about letting go of control; it’s about opening up to the possibilities that come when you do. It’s about finding humor in the messiness of life and realizing that sometimes, the universe has a better plan than yours.

So, here’s to the unexpected lessons of a chaotic Saturday morning, to finding humor in the midst of mayhem, and to the gentle art of surrender. May we all learn to ride the waves of life with a little more grace and a lot more laughter. And remember, sometimes the universe conspires in our favor, especially when we step back and allow it to do its magic.