Hope For the Best

I am a self-proclaimed drama queen.

In my defense, it runs in my family. And I'm not as bad as I used to be. And I have to say I'm really working on it. I'm trying to break that cycle. Really. Anyway...

Here are two scenarios to illustrate my dramatic persona-
1. My tires needed to be rotated, and we're lucky to have a car that beeps at me constantly until the task is done. (Can you hear my sarcasm?) My husband noticed the beep and asked why I hadn't taken care of it yet. "Are you kidding?" I said. "Sitting in that disgusting tire place with two kids-a wild three year old and a 13 month old who REFUSES to walk and hates to be held, so I would have to wrestle him to make sure he didn't crawl on that flu infested floor?" (I said this all in one breath.) He suggested I just put them in the stroller and walk them over to PetsMart for half an hour. "That's easier said than done." I sighed.

2. A couple Saturdays ago I had a crazy schedule. We had a fireside in the morning. Pictures for my side of the family were planned immediately after. There was a Halloween party and a Primary training meeting. I was dreading that day. I had to leave the fireside and go straight to the photo sight-leaving me no time to doll up my kids. I just KNEW my kids would be grumpy and look like ragamuffins. I knew my morning man-voice would kill that fireside. (It's pretty low in the mornings!) I could go on but I'll spare you the dramatic details.

But here's what I'm learning-again. The anticipation is often worse than the outcome. Here was the outcome of both scenarios:

1. I took my car to the tire store. I loaded my kids in the stroller. Walked across the parking lot on a nice, sunny day. Walked around PetsMart for 20 minutes. Left without any tears or whining. Walked back, got in my car, drove home. So ya. Really easy.

2. The fireside went great. Set up with time to spare. Felt calm. I sounded feminine. Got to pictures in plenty of time. My kids looked AH-dorable. (Can I say that?) Got some amazing shots. Rest of the day was a breeze. Are you seeing a pattern here?

It reminds me of that quote - Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. I think I have the prepare for the worst part down, but I'm not HOPING FOR THE BEST. Things may go wrong, but there's a good chance it'll go great. I think sometimes as women we tend to play the martyr role. Sometimes we make our lives seem harder than they are. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of women with REALLY difficult trials. But it seems like the ones with the hardest paths are the ones that have that HOPE thing down. I need to be more like them. There are lots of things I need to be focusing my energy on-stressing about the outcome of each situation seems such a waste.

So this week I'm focusing on hope. I'll probably still prepare for the worst, (I like to have a plan), but once I'm prepared I'll let it go and just HOPE. That seems like a better option...and far less dramatic.