Spin Master

Have you ever seen a video of a performer spinning plates?  The person is moving constantly, keeping the plates spinning on top of the little poles.  If he is good at the act, the plates never come crashing to the floor:

Dear reader, sometimes I am this guy.  Sometimes, I am rocking the plate spinning.  Sometimes it is my jam and I'm all like, "Look at me world!  I have 3,495 details to remember today, and I am remembering them all.  I have delivered all the people on time to all the places, I signed all the forms, remembered all the payments, picked up all my kids on time, answered all the emails, prepared for teaching, fed my family, and washed all their laundry!"  -- and the list goes on.  I recently told my husband, during one of these I'm-rocking-the plate-spinning-moments, that I think I needed a medal for all the details I was taking care of.

My friends, I should never have said that.  Apparently I momentarily forgot that the majority of the time, all my plates are wobbling, dangerously close to falling off their little poles.  And that often, very often, fall off they do.  And when they fall off, they fall off with a thunderous crash.  In the last three weeks, I have: attempted to pick a child up at the wrong time (and had to return an hour later), forgotten to pick a child up completely (don't worry, he was fine), neglected to answer an email to a friend in a timely manner, and signed up to take a meal to a new mother, but registered the wrong day in my brain, thereby causing confusion.

Man, I hate forgetting details and dropping the ball on things.  I really can't stand missing things or letting people down.  But you know what I've noticed when I can't spin all the plates all the time?  The world actually keeps on spinning.  My errors might cause a blip in my life (and sometimes others' lives), but the world doesn't end. And people usually give me grace.  No one seems to hate me when I don't do all of the things.  It's a lesson learned in humility and accepting the kindness of others.

One of my favorite (though overused) quotes is "Life is what happens when you're making other plans".  Spinning all the plates is my season of life right now, and I don't want to wish it away.  Life is super full, but it's also very, very good.

And a falling plate now and then isn't going to ruin it all.