Friday | Just Laugh at the Absurdity

Can we take a moment to say hello to September? Hello, September! You all know that I’m ready for fall and am over the moon about this new month. This week saw a sudden shift in the weather – Monday and Tuesday were in the 90s and yesterday’s high was 73! I’m not sure how long that type of perfection will last but we’re doing our best to enjoy it right now. And my tiny yellow rose bush is blooming again!

For a long time now, I’ve made it my mission to talk about joy on Fridays. Today’s post will start in a not-so-joyful manner, but I promise it will get there. It’s a good morning for a hot cup of coffee and I’m already on my second. Will you join me?

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We’ve been on “vacation” this week and plan to start the school year with vim and vigor next Tuesday. I had all of the curricula picked out and purchased last spring and was planning to print and bind it in July during our two week break. But then we got covid and there was no opportunity for such frippery.

So I put all of that work on my mental calendar for this week because I knew we would be on a short break from our summer school activities. And then I found out last Friday that Colton wouldn’t be able to attend his programs on Monday or Tuesday because of scheduling issues.

I pushed those plans out to Wednesday, which is when his new fall programming was scheduled to start. 3 days would be plenty of time!

And then Tuesday night saw the arrival of a severe gastrointestinal thing and well, let the onslaught begin. We have the best timing, let me tell you.

On Wednesday night, as I crawled around on the floors trying to clean up more of you-don’t-want-to-know-what, I about died laughing. My life is absurd. Yours probably is too, at times. And it is a gift to be able to laugh about the absurdity instead of sink into it.

I have been quite anxious about getting all of the curricula printed and bound but had an epiphany as I crawled on the floor that night. We can still start school on Tuesday even if everything isn’t 100% ready to go. I have all of the books recommended for the first six weeks of school (we follow a literature based curriculum for the bulk of our work and end up reading so.many.books – it’s just what my heart loves, but I have to procure them in stages), I can follow the lesson plans on my computer, we can write in regular notebooks instead of the fancy printed out ones, and we can still have fun. That’s all that matters.

Perfection isn’t possible. Sometimes life is full of gastrointestinal THINGS that muck it all up, slow us down, and give us an opportunity to spend more time together. Even if it’s a little bit stinky. Even if your oldest child walks into the room, takes a deep a breath, and says, “Ahhh… just taking in the stink.”

And that’s some Buddhist wisdom right there. Take in the stink. It won’t last forever and it’s a part of life. Maybe even try to enjoy it? Definitely laugh at it!

The bug has continued and Colton will end up staying home today as well. At some point, this will be over and I’ll forget all about it. But I hope I remember all of the laughing.

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I hope you find a lot of things to laugh at this weekend. I’m tempted to predict that I’ll be back on Monday with a wrap up on my August reading, but you’ve seen how my plans have have worked out this week. Nevertheless, I hope to show up on Monday even if it’s with just a smile and a hello. Until then – take good care.