'Tis the season...

God was trying to send me a message yesterday.

Balance.

Because I clearly wasn't doing a good job of it.

And I obviously wasn't listening very well to His hints so far.

So he spoke through a handful of my friends. :)

On my commute yesterday morning to Seattle for a full day of meetings, it was extremely cold, dark, and the roads were already backing up with law enforcement and flashing lights.

After several hours in the car on the way north, all day of meetings, feeling 'very full' due to leaving the nursing pump at home, and looking ahead to the drive home of an hour and a half (if I was lucky), I melted down.

Big time. In the car. On the phone with Stella. While yelling at dumb pedestrians in downtown. Tears and all. Maybe even a few not-safe-for-blog words. And a horn or two at above pedestrians. And Stella listened and gave me the shoulder to cry on that I needed. And she was my first message from Him that I heard.

And afterwards, it felt so much better. Getting it all out and off my chest (figuratively, at least).

A few minutes later, my good friend, Michelle, called me just to check in after I left the meeting. "Just to make sure her friend was OK." It was so good to see her the past few days, and I was bummed that I wouldn't be able to spend time with her last night. And here she was, checking in to let me know that she was thinking about me. My second message from Him.

About an hour later, with 40 minutes still to go, I got an email from Kevin Durkin (hey! You're on the blog again!). One of my favoritest Relayers from St. Charles. An incredibly awesome young man who is going to take the world by storm. And he wrote the sweetest email which honestly, had me crying again. But this time, in a good way. My third message from Him.

When Jonathan and I were sitting on the couch later, decompressing and talking about how things could have gone differently so these few days would have 'flowed better', I got a text from Maureen. Offering to watch the Wee Ski for an evening when she was on Christmas break so Jonathan and I could have a (much needed) date night. And three hours after my meltdown, my fourth message from him.

It was an awesome gift given over several hours, that I could only pay attention to after stripping away everything else.

Here's to finding balance. To knowing which balls are glass and which are rubber while I'm juggling things.

And for knowing who and what are at the very heart of it all.

(edited to add...today's lesson in balance? just got a call from mom telling me that she found my blackberry in her car. perhaps i'm needing to 'cut the cord' a bit from technology too.)