Hey there! I’m Mikala—a family doctor, wife, mother of 5, well-being advocate, and author of the books Ordinary on Purpose and Everything I Wish I Could Tell You About Midlife. Each month my writing reaches millions of women, but I am thrilled to be connecting with YOU. I’m truly grateful to have you here!
All in Life
Yep. These moments wait for me. Just like He does. So patiently. ALL THIS BEAUTY. Ever at the ready to take my breath away. I only need to look up…and NOTICE.
Over and over and over we get all caught up in life’s pain. Consumed by how far we have yet to go. And sometimes we lose sight of our blessings.
It means fun and laughter and connection. And giving WHATEVER it is I have to offer without stopping to worry if it’s enough.
These next few days are usually when I get a little overwhelmed and start to think I might be over it all.
But this is CHRISTMAS! The season of perpetual Hope!!! And I don’t want to be ‘over it’ at all!
I never imagined I’d be a mom who yells sometimes. But I do. More than I care to admit. Oh, and my kids have seen me cry.
Most of my life is a series of ordinary moments strung together day after day and week after week and year after year…
No one told me I’d want to fast-forward, pause, and rewind all within the span of about thirty minutes. It is all so hard. The good, the bad, the ordinary.
Forty and loved and chubby and happy and worthy and graying and strong and just…HERE. Doing my imperfect best every single day.
Real Life won’t start once the kids are all potty-trained or you finally lose those last ten pounds or tick a few things off your bucket list.
Every time we’ve made a big decision…a decision that means CHANGE…someone is left unhappy. Annoyed. Disappointed. Let down. Angry.
Our lives are LIVED in the process. Day by day. Bit by bit. Word by word. Moment by moment. God is stitching and weaving and working it all together.
Day after day, month after month, year after year…laugh lines appearing like rings around the trunk of a tree. If you count them, I bet there’s 40.
So many opinions and studies and best practices and guidelines and anecdotal evidence and studies and celebrity endorsements…everywhere we turn we are inundated with how to do life RIGHT!!!
We are all doing the very best we can with what we have and the only way we know how.
I noticed how the people with the most painful stories sometimes had the most serene smiles on their faces and how they leapt to help the next person in line.
For me, writing is like a gift all wrapped up in a beautiful little box and tied with a gigantic frilly bow that I’ve been waiting to unwrap my entire life.
If I’m hoping my kids will achieve the fairytale I think I’m selling them short because this is an invented and impossible standard.
I wish I didn’t have to struggle so hard at ALL THE THINGS life throws my way. But the truth is I CAN do hard things. HE REMINDS ME WHO I AM. I am HIS.
Can we just embrace the chaos and noise? Embrace the laundry and dishes? Embrace the floor littered with, well…everything??
