If you’re anything like me, you do a lot of talking. Sometimes I actually stop and listen to myself. Recently I’ve heard myself saying the same thing quite often and it finally struck me as something worth listening to.
Lately, more times than I’d like to admit, I have heard myself saying that something, or someone is “Out of Control.” It’s just a simple phrase. People say it all the time. I do.
I caught myself saying it during a quiet church service on Sunday when my baby started shrieking, exercising full lung power. “Kid, you are out of control!”
I’ve said it numerous times lately when I have stepped outside to 40mph winds blowing the heck out of this dry New Mexico desert. I wear contacts people! It’s out of control.
I found myself muttering in the garden the other day as I was pulling weeds where I had just pulled weeds only days before. The pesky things just keep popping up. They’re out of control.
And you know, I’m right. All of those things are out of my control. In fact, a lot of things are out of my control. I know that, I say. I’m not a control freak or anything like that, I say. Yet I find myself frequently lamenting my inability to control my kids, the weather, desert plant life, the government, door to door salesmen, etc.
What it really comes down to is this: I am out of control.
Not only is controlling my kids (or the weather, or my local politicians) not really a good idea, it is not even possible. It is not my job to be in control of anything or anyone but myself. I need to be reminded of this. When I am trying to control someone or something else I place my focus out there and when I think the problems and the solutions lie anywhere but with me, I’ve lost control of myself. I need to be reminded of this too. When I can let go of the thought that I need to be in control of things outside myself, I find life unfolding all around me just the way it is meant to be.
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