It’s been a little crazy lately to say the least. I own a variety of small business ventures and I have a non-profit. I have a mother-in-law that turns 90 this year who lives with us, my 13- year old granddaughter that I’ve raised since she was a baby and adopted lives with us. Five adult children out on their own and 6 other grandkiddos and 4 dogs. Mother’s day is around the corner, so as a florist and then the crafty business venture, sales will be super crazy and very demanding of my time to put together and then run retail for all of that. Sure, the kiddos can help and are amazing at following my lead without asking questions, everyone just falls in place like a fine piece of silk, but ultimately I created the chaotic world of entrepreneurship. Yet I wouldn’t change much of anything. How do some of us thrive for this chaos? I know, there’s the psychological aspects and ‘let us look at your childhood’ type diagnosis, but really it’s who ‘I’ am. I thrive to be successful and see it as a challenge to balance home, family and business. My home is clean but well lived in (obviously a huge difference), I talk to the adult kids regularly and really loving the time I get with the grandkids that their parents make time for whether it’s in person or over video chat (BTW the FB portal thing is really cool for story time).

As a domestic violence survivor, and being raised by a single mom I thrive for achieving difficult goals (there’s that therapy diagnosis). No parent ever sits back after their children are adults and says YEP I made the best decision every single time and I wouldn’t change a thing. We all look back and say damn - I wish I would have handled this differently or I wish I could have encouraged that more. But the fact is we do the best we can with what’s at hand in that moment and we hope that all the experiences are life lessons that will either be remembered fondly and repeated in some form of positivity or they’ll hate something and hopefully not repeat that with their own kids; other than time outs and whatnots.

So what’s the point of this post? Just sharing to let other’s know it’s okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes. We all have a lot on our plates, everyone is different. Everyone’s stress is different. Everyone handles stress differently. With that, I’d like to challenge you to open a door for a stranger, compliment someone on their shirt, when you are passing someone in the store and have to say ‘excuse me’ tell them thank you and have a good day. You never know how something so little can lift someone up from their own stress. Compliments and manners from strangers can sometimes turn a frown to a smile.

Do your part to make the world a better place.