My Emergency Reactions

I live in a land where emergencies happen moment to moment.

The kids woke up too early and now everyone is cranky. Emergency.

Baby played in the toilet that wasn’t flushed. Emergency.

A ‘helper’ dusted valuable breakables onto the floor. Goodbye travel souvenirs. Emergency.

A mole dug up my freshly planted flower beds. Emergency.

Burned cornbread. Emergency.

These things are BIG in my life.
I want to pout and scream and call someone to get some sympathy. Isn’t that what we do in an emergency? My reaction is physical and I feel my chest tighten, breathing accelerates.

A few months ago I printed out a Parenting Manifesto from Ann Voscamp’s blog. I love every line written, but one stuck out to me:



Today, I will not have any emergencies. There are no emergencies. Only amateurs hurry.





But…. I want to argue (and maybe stomp my foot!), situations happen all day long that make me crazy! In my land, they are emergencies. This Manifesto implies I have a choice about how I react to them. Could great calamities be handled with grace?

We all know the craziness of my reaction isn’t productive.

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