Having just finished this amazing book from Dr. Payne and Lisa Ross, I am inspired. Inspired and hopeful. I can see a place for this book's insight throughout our family life and home. It brings about the idea that simplification isn't just about our physical stuff but about how we fill our time. For too long I feel like I have been on a back burner watching my life pass me by, waiting for it all to get better; finding out our journey isn't what I had planned and so why bother. I have had fear of reaching outside of what I have been given and in desiring more; fear of failure and of wrecking my kids lives. Fear, fear, and more fear.
All of these feelings I get are real. But that doesn't mean I have to let them define me. This book brought me a new approach and these ideas are feeling like a great stepping stone off the merry-go-round I have been riding for too many years.
At the very end of this book (no it's not a spoiler), Payne says "Is there a step in the process of simplification that seems absolutely doable, something you know is possible now, in your own home? This is your starting point, the trailhead of your path toward the larger changes you envision." My "trailhead" is the removal of clutter and excess, as well as that the crazy paced status quo of our world doesn't have to be my life.
A difficult boy and a special needs daughter don't mean my life is over, but simply something different than what I'd expected. I'm not perfect and don't have this as a hard and fast mindset, but I'm getting used to this idea. I look forward to taking the steps of what our "normal" will look like. Instead of letting the world's versions of normal be the thing I constantly compare too and long for.
I have not been paid to read this book, the opinions I have written throughout my posts are my own, and I will stand strongly behind this book and say that all parents should read it. Honestly, it was inspiring, realistic and doable. All the things I need as a stay at home mom.