Last year we had the most amazing experience staying in a French countryside chateau that was over 500 years old! We arrived at this bed and breakfast after the first leg of our driving tour. It looked like a movie set.  We were given our antique castle key, and shown to our third floor room by taking an open-air creaking circular grand staircase all the way to the attic!  Step lightly!

For some reason it was near impossible to lock the attic rooms from the outside. We felt much better when we saw the couple across the hall struggling as well. Both of us couples ultimately coming to a united truce, and leaving our rooms unlocked. After all we were in the middle of nowhere, what could possibly happen?

What I didn’t realize until we returned to our rooms after dinner was that we had to lock ourselves IN our room too.  Thankfully locking the door from inside was far easier than locking it from the outside. Don’t ask me why?

This ‘lock in’ ritual would have been fine, except hubby insisted on giving me an unlocking tutorial, should there be a ‘middle of the night emergency’.  He had me practice with the lock and antique castle key.  I passed, but I also found this exercise unsettling and I proceeded to think about all the worst-case scenarios that would require ME to unlock our bedroom door SOLO in the middle of the night in order to escape. Escape what? In case it is has not been clear from past writings, I have a very active catastrophic imagination.  I was ‘entertained’ all night long.

We slept window open, because the entire country of France seems to have an air conditioning phobia.  (But I can extend some grace to this 500-year-old chateau).  Since I was up in the middle of the night, I heard the rain come. Then I heard the dripping noises. Was that the pipes, the window, the roof? Oh goody, another item to add to my ‘entertainment’.

Mamas, sometimes we can be our own worst enemy.  We can be the reason for sleepless nights, for an overactive imagination, for worry and stress. It is during these active catastrophic thinking binges that I am most in awe of Jesus and how He created our minds. The expanse and ability of our mind to process, in my case, worries and fears, at warp speed. I get so inventive with my ‘what if’ worst case scenarios. I really think I could be a best selling author if I could just find a way to download and transcribe my thoughts directly to paper.

But if I am being serious, this over active imagination makes me feel disappointed more than anything. Realizing the potential of my mind, and that I CHOOSE to fill it with inane worries, instead of harnessing its brilliant capabilities. What wasted potential!!!

Mamas, I think a big part of life is acknowledging, reflecting, and challenging the hard things that come our way. Then taking these hard things to the next level by seeking ways to adapt and cohabitate with them.  This is the strategy that got me through my baby losses, and gets me through working in a profession I no longer love, and having an overactive imagination. We can’t shy away from the hard things; we have to engage in order to triumph.  

Keep challenging the hard things Mamas.