Flowers and Chaos

I have a lovely friend who gave me flowers a few days back. The one has opened up nicely and I wanted to show it to her. So I tried to snap a picture or two. It didn't have to be perfect, not even Pinterest worthy. But try as I might, I could not seem to get a good shot. "Well!" I thought to myself. "This won't do at all! I can't send her a single one of these."

The flowers are beautiful and they are in my kitchen where I get to enjoy them daily. The thing is, the background of the pictures is, well, my kitchen. Where my family eats and works and lives. And you can see all the "stuff" in the background of these pictures-the chaos of living our lives. I was trying to figure out if I should put them through an Instagram filter or try to photoshop them when it occurred to me (via a still, small voice) that I was being silly and even worse, superficial.

My friend would be so glad to know that I was enjoying the beautiful flowers she gave me. She would care not at all about the stuff in the background. She's been in my home-she knows its not worthy of a Better Homes and Gardens spread. She knows my life-I have kids and a husband and we are not a perfect family. We are real people who live in a real house in a real way. My dear friend knows that and loves me in spite of because of my imperfections. I am ashamed that I did not give her credit to see my life how it is on a Monday morning.

So why am I posting this on the blog? What does it have to do with you or MOPS? Everything, actually. We have such a wonderful, unique group of women in our MOPS group. We all have different backgrounds and different lives. But not a single one of us has a fairy godmother sweeping through to make our lives perfect. We have all stayed up with sick kids, sick husbands or just from worry and been weary for days, weeks or years on end. If we are willing to be real, we  can all benefit from the support and community of this group.

Join me on Thursday, August 27 at 10:00 am, which is our Open House. We will be learning about our theme "A Fierce Flourishing." We will have snacks and do a craft. I will work on being more real, more transparent. And you, please continue to be the real you. The real you is very much worth the time and energy of getting to know!

Are you wondering about those pictures? Here they are-with my plastic bag holder, recycling bin, receipts to be shredded, piles of towels, fridge full of drawings and banged up walls-the chaos of my life :)