You know that little saying about life not having to be perfect to be wonderful?  It’s one of those things we all know logically, but secretly we really just want things to be a little closer to perfect than the other end of the spectrum.

We all have days that we just move through without anything too exciting or awful happening; we just kind of stay within the boundaries of average.  These are the days that you aren’t even sure what you accomplished, but your blood pressure seemingly stayed within normal range and you find yourself at 9pm ready to take a bath and go to bed.  I imagine this is what zen feels like.  I have even been known to tell my girls not to call, text or walk into my room with any drama because I just want another 8 hours of peace.

I had one of these days earlier this week.  I had checked in with all of my girls, said goodnight, took a deep breath and started the bath.  About 5 minutes into my soak the phone rang.  Our middle daughter was upset because she had just arrived home and her dog started barking uncontrollably at something outside.  She lives over one thousand miles aways so it’s a little hard to say, “I’m sure it’s fine, go to bed” but you also can’t jump on her bandwagon of crazy.  So, we talk her down and stay on the phone with her.  We remind her that she has a security system and a barking dog.  The chance that some lunatic is stalking her house and going to break in is about 0%.  Once we are all calmed down and she is fairly certain she can go to sleep, we hang up.

After much experience in these late night dramas I know that my chances of falling asleep quickly are pretty slim. We watch some television and I finally doze off for about an hour.  I am awoken by my youngest who doesn’t feel well.  She has high blood sugar and her back hurts.  After some water, ibuprofen and love from the pups she things she can go back to sleep so I, too, go to bed.

At 3 am I find myself still awake when I am startled by what can only be a bear raiding our kitchen.  I jump out of bed like any sane mother would only to find my 22-year-old rummaging through the pantry for something to bring her blood sugar up because she is low.  She assures me she doesn’t need my help and that I can go back to bed.

So, what does one do at 3am when sleep seems to be elusive and the alarm is going to go off in another 3 hours?  A little foam rolling of the hips and some yoga, of course. I know it sounds crazy, but the foam roller was just laying there and my hips were really tight.  While very relaxed I was still unable to fall back to sleep.  Instead I stared at the ceiling thinking about our lives.  This particular night had not gone as planned and while it was far from perfect, it wasn’t that far outside of normal for us.  I am willing to bet that while your circumstances might be different, you have similar nights.  My point is that the unexpected is normal.

Life can feel like a roller coaster.  One minute we are smooth sailing and at the next turn we find ourselves upside down hoping our seat belts are securely fastened.  We never know what the next turn is going to look like and that is part of the wonder, fear, and excitement.  When we are able to look at life the same way it just feels like part of the ride.  Sure, we are going to have days, weeks and even months that seem hard and scary and we just want the ride to be over.  But I am also pretty sure that within those hard days and weeks you have also felt joy.  It is just like a roller coaster. There is anticipation, fear, excitement, joy, we find ourselves wanting it to stop; to just be over, we laugh, scream, cry and at the same time we never want it to end.

I am so thankful for the crazy and unexpected because it’s also wonderfully perfect some days.