Well, I am here to say just how well I can “hear” you today!!

Oh my, you likely are wondering just WHAT is she talking about this time?? OK, I understand your question, but today I want to discuss one of my ALL-time favorite words: ADAPTABILITY. (Yes, that sound is all my kids groaning in the background right now. LOL!)

Oh, please don’t get distracted by their groaning, but keep reading because the following little phrase isn’t one that I made up, but something someone oh-so-wise once told me (an 18-year-old girl, thank you very much): “Adaptability is a form of INTELLIGENCE.” (Ya, let that one soak and sink in.)

It IS simple, but IS totally true! And so, how does this concept of adaptability apply to how well I can “hear”???  Well, “hear” me out to the end. (OK, I had to use that pun just one more time.) 🙂

Well, the other day after my evening shower — why do so many of my little stories seem to take place in the bathroom??? 🙂 — I was all dried off and well lotioned and ready to go to bed, but when I went to use a Q-tip to oh-so-elegantly clean out my ears, I discovered, much to my dismay, there were none left!

What horrors! What tragedy!!!! What… an opportunity???!!?? Say what?

Yeah, there I was, with water in my ears, thinking, “Now just what am I going to do to get to my goal of getting to bed? I can’t go to sleep with that soggy, wet feeling in my ears (oh, yes, THAT would be terrible), 🙂 but I CAN get creative and apply some ‘adaptability’ to get this oh-so-important job done!”

So, what did I do? Well, I rolled over to the toilet (not kidding) and unravelled the roll of toilet paper and removed two small squares of it. Ta-da!!!

See the solution???? Likely not, BUT it goes back to when I was a nurse in the Arctic. My mentor up there taught me the “super-secret-high-end-technique-of-Q-tip replacement”: twisting the toilet paper square into a fine little funnel that oh-so-easily enters the ear with absolutely no risk of ruining the eardrum. AND, not only is it safer, but the price is right (0.00000025 cents a square — oh, you thrifty Moms, I HEAR your heart singing with mine!! LOL!) And so again I say, TA-DA! Bathroom dilemma DIVERTED!!! 

But what does all the “Q-tip and T.P.” mean for real life, for real me? Well, it all goes back to that word written at the beginning: adaptability. 

I look back in life and I see it was all too easy for me to get all-too-STUCK from achieving (maybe even setting??) daily goals due to things not happening “the way” I had planned… or I had wanted… or I had worked SO hard to CONTROL.

But, ooooooh, when I (oh-so slowly) 🙂 learnt to “let go and roll” with what life does bring along, making sure the overall CONCEPT IS achieved, even in ways I didn’t see, or kinda seemed silly, well then, I could still move forward in small ways, in real life, AND especially in the ways that REALLY matter.

Yup, ADAPTABILITY is a great concept for ALL areas of life, but the best way to make my life count the MOST each day isn’t about adapting my life to just make MY things happen first, but DO the stuff that GOD says gotta get done.

And the number one thing He says I should do is hang out with Him, building up our relationship, because it’s THAT relationship that brings along the best rewards EVER: blessings, impact, PEACE. 

And so, I have learnt to CHOOSE time with HIM each day — adapting MY life, pattern, pace, purpose to what HE calls me to first. Yup, it is the golden ticket to getting a PEACEFUL life, ladies and so… I pass the toilet roll challenge back to you. 🙂

What will you choose to do today: stay stuck in the set schedule (like I oh-so-always used to be!), or ADAPT, be bent, learn to roll with each day and get DONE with the only goal that really matters, hanging out with HIM?

Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Beautiful Women of God!

Carol

P.S. You will never look at a roll of toilet paper the same again — I guarantee! 🙂