You know that, right?
Because, if I was any good at it (life? parenting? everything?) I wouldn’t make so many mistakes.
Like getting a few kilometres down the highway on my way to Monday’s Remembrance Day service, only to have the vehicle begin her I’m-almost-out-of-fuel convulsions, requiring me to turn around and hiccup my way home on fumes and prayer.
Like forgetting my sister’s birthday, that time she was visiting me for a few days, and only remembering after she’d left.
Like losing the pre-bought Christmas presents – because I’m so organized (heavy sarcasm) and bought them early and hid them somewhere really good – only to find them the next May while I was spring cleaning.
Like booking three events on the same weekend and forgetting about them all.
Like inviting company to come for dinner and forgetting to turn on the oven.
Like losing my temper with my children or my husband or the teller at the bank.
Like not getting the laundry done, requiring my son to go commando to church. (Not that he minded, but I was sure people would find out our dark laundry secret.)
Like going months without really reading scripture or praying. And doubting. And faking.
Lately I’ve had some you’re so wonderful comments because of what I write in this little space, day after day. And, to be honest, I’ve had some negative ones, too. Some, you think you’re so great but I know you’re really not that special kinds of insinuations, and some you’re wrong, wrong, wrong emails, and some quit being so this or that messages.
That’s how it goes when you write stuff and put it on the internet and people read it.
Truth is, I y’am who I y’am (thanks for that, Popeye) and for the most part, I’ve learned to be content.
We are all different, and we love and share and rage and cry and create, each in our own ways. Cooking, painting, writing, parenting. There’s art in it all.
You are wonderful. Really, you are. You do some things well and some not so well, and you have a bunch of stuff you think you should be better at, and maybe you wish your legs were longer or you nose was shorter or your hair was thicker.
Maybe you think you’re not a good friend or a good mom or a good Christian. Maybe you think everyone else does it better. Maybe you’re in a sad place or a bad place or a hard place or maybe your place is pretty darn good right now.
I don’t know your place, but I do know your journey. Because we’re all on one, and the truth is, no place is permanent. Life is movement. It’s entering and being and leaving, always, over and over. Until you’re dead.
So the next time I write about my awesome kids or my wonderful husband or my beautiful life… know that sometimes – lots of times – it isn’t.
Grace.
My Men and Me 
November 13, 2013 at 9:37 am
Thank you … and, you are wonderful.
November 13, 2013 at 9:51 am
You are very kind. And I know for sure you are better than I at quilting and cooking and probably a bunch of other stuff!
November 13, 2013 at 9:54 am
Boy howdy. I so get this. I have been in the same mind set for the same reason. Life is a journey and “we is what we is”. I happen to like you the way you are, faults and all.
November 13, 2013 at 10:36 am
We is what we is 🙂 Love it! Thanks Susan, I like you too:)
November 13, 2013 at 10:26 am
I love you! Seriously… you write like it is…. Honesty and truthfulness and a real view of a real person and her men. Life sometimes gets in the way of perfection and I think that is how our Lord wants it… if it was all great and we remembered everything where would growth come from? Thank you for this post. Thanks for being you.
November 13, 2013 at 10:37 am
I love you, too! Isn’t that amazing, that we can be friends who have never even met:)
November 13, 2013 at 10:40 am
I know! It may be a good thing we have never met, we may be too much trouble if we were together..
November 13, 2013 at 10:46 am
This is beautiful in so many ways.We call our self women and yet carry and reach and push and sometimes find.Man only a women can really see the hats we wear and the accessories of life we decorate our self with ,but when it comes to it we are powerful and a influence to all we come in contact with .To keep moving and shaking and discovering our limits is a beautiful thing.Strength is built in ways we ourself have to stand back and say I did it and wisdom tells me this will be easier next time…. It is not in the perfections of life we find our value but our struggles .Thanks for this!
November 13, 2013 at 10:46 am
amen
November 13, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Thank you so much for this. I appreciate your thoughts. Struggle is part of learning… This is so true.
November 15, 2013 at 7:48 am
In all I have found with such a hard life ,God has always touch me there is a decision in all I choose to be,say,and react…and still learning.But we as people always think life struggles show weakness ,But they just show our wisdom cained and we learn we are smarter than what we appear and stronger than people think…thank you for sharing!
November 13, 2013 at 10:49 am
commando to church.. brilliant! I can imagine your discomfort.
I could not agree more, and I knew all this, the imperfect and the not so gracious and the temper cause it happens here too, it happens in every home.
I love your posts for the glimpse into your lives, for the thoughts you share and even though I am British and reserved and we have never met, I love you too 🙂
November 13, 2013 at 2:14 pm
It’s the sharing of ourselves that connects us. I’m Canadian and a bit reserved as well, but I love you too, dear friend!
November 13, 2013 at 11:45 am
I remember the thrill of talking my mama into buying me the NEW and HUGE box of Crayola Crayons for the new school year…You know, the one with the awesome crayon sharpener plugged into the back of the box!! I remember opening the slitted box top and seeing the mixture and blend of colours. Oh, and can’t you just smell the waxy frangrance of new crayons? I remember admiring each one of those colours. My favourites were the hues of blues. I took each one out and knew just what objects I would colour with each beautiful stick. Oh, how I loved that new box of crayons. I don’t remember one time when I rejected a colour because it wasn’t like my very favourite turquoise colour. I never threw out my brown, because I knew it would best colour the trunk of my trees. And the white–it stayed the sharpest the longest of all the colours because I just didn’t have cause to use it very often. But, oh what a life-saver it was when I needed to draw my white ghosts on a dark, dark night. I wonder why we can’t look at each other as I once saw my box a crayons? We don’t need to compare ourselves with one another. We make a beautiful picture together, each using the gifts (and weaknesses) that God has given us. I love “turquoise” women. You know the ones–the fun-spirited, laugh-provoking, people-gatherer that everyone loves to be around. But you know what? I’m not a “turquoise” woman. I’m more of the earth-green kind of a colour–practical, useful, nothing-to-write-home-about kind if colour. But am I less valuable as a person because I’m a green, not a turquoise? I love it when we appreciate ourselves, as God has created us to be!!! Your writing is filled with your appreciation of what God has done, and continues to do in your life!
Janelle, I love the person God has created in you. Your writing reflects an artist as work!! I love the way you can take the tiniest detail and make it a learning and reflecting time for me. Thank you for not keeping your writing to yourself. You minister to me more than you will EVER know. You teach me, you inspire me, you encourage me. Never compromise who you are for fear of what others may or may not think. You don’t write to please others (although it’s a bonus when others glean from what we write). You write because God has placed this need, this passion to create. Writing helps you reflect, process and remember. You add beauty to the world with your creations. I don’t hang them on the wall or clip them around my neck, but your creations of words help form me more into the woman God has created me to be. So write on, sister, write on!!! My offer still stands to be an editor of your first book!! I’ve done it before, and would LOVE to do it again!!
I look forward to each one of your posts!!
Alicia
November 13, 2013 at 2:17 pm
Your comments always bless me, and everyone who reads here, Alicia. Thank you. I love all the colours, too, of all the women I know. It’s a colourful world!
November 13, 2013 at 3:17 pm
love this
November 13, 2013 at 1:29 pm
Its so true. People tend to write about the good parts of their lives, not the bad. So it is easy to get depressed reading about other people’s great lives and thinking they are better than you, but you have to remember you don’t know the whole story. Great post.
November 13, 2013 at 2:19 pm
Thanks for your comment, Shannon. It’s so easy to compare and resent, isn’t it. I wish I could always be gracious and loving. I try.
November 13, 2013 at 2:49 pm
I know what you mean. No one is perfect, that’s what makes us human 🙂
November 14, 2013 at 4:13 am
i read more than i comment and yes we are all on a journey and although we walk side by side for a while we all have to do our own thing in the end.
November 14, 2013 at 8:55 am
So true, Beverley. We all find our way, hopefully encouraging each other on as we go.
November 14, 2013 at 8:44 am
Whenever I am coming home after dark, and the living room blind is still open so I can see inside our house, I am always struck by how perfect it looks. It’s cozy and colourful and beautiful. Then I come in the back door with the loose weather stripping and the inside stairs need vacuuming and I go up the stairs and there’s cat hair on the couch and the kitchen needs sweeping and absolutely everything could use a coat of paint.
Everything looks perfect in a photo, so it’s not really a true representation, but then again, it kind of is.
November 14, 2013 at 10:27 am
It’s not true, but it kinda is. I get that.
November 14, 2013 at 7:30 pm
I love this….and I love your willingness to share your list; it’s comforting to read through and think, “you, too?” I keep reminding myself we’re all doing the best we can with what we’re given; maybe I need to remember to APPRECIATE what we’ve each been given, too.
November 15, 2013 at 9:04 am
I’m trying to love people better, including myself.
November 20, 2013 at 1:29 pm
Love, love this. Janelle, would you want to consider sharing it on my blog as a guest post? Perfect for my readers too. Let me know
November 20, 2013 at 2:42 pm
Christa, of course you may use this on your blog. Honoured.
November 20, 2013 at 2:37 pm
Janelle,
You are real, and this is truth you wrote. Keep being you. You is good.
November 20, 2013 at 2:43 pm
Thanks, Pamela.
November 20, 2013 at 7:50 pm
Janelle, you are always such a breath of fresh Saskatchewan air. We can ring you like a bell, because you tell it like it is. You share the gospel without preaching, and I like that, and I love it.
November 21, 2013 at 9:19 am
Thanks Kathleen. I’m awfully fond of you and your wonderful blogging words, friend.
November 20, 2013 at 8:57 pm
Beautiful, real and delightful post, Janelle. And I agree with Kathleen. You are a breath of fresh air. Blessings to you.
November 21, 2013 at 9:20 am
Thank you so much, Terrie. Thanks for stopping in today.
November 21, 2013 at 11:16 pm
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