One for the record books

Well, today started out interestingly enough.

I woke up before my alarm with all three little children either in bed with us or trying to climb in. I think the youngest trying to climb in was what finally woke me for good.

At least we were in a hotel room and had a king sized bed. What a difference that makes when there are five people piled in there. Of course, I am on the side and my wife is on the same side with the entire bed to her back. Not that I mind that she wants to be close to me...after almost 17 years that is a wonderful thing, but there is still a ton of bed space unused, and the kids will soon outgrow trying to climb into bed with us, so why should we invest in a king sized bed for the house...but I am inherently frugal (cheap some say) and I digress.

I made the time to pause and pray my morning prayer. Some mornings when it is instantly hectic I don't take that time, but I have noticed that those mornings seem to get even more hectic.

So this morning I paused...to dedicate the day, and whatever came to the Lord.

Prayers complete...Deep breath...then it started.

My daughter left her school pants at home, so we had to drive home before school to pick them up. This threw off my morning time schedule. But, I have the Rosary on CD so we used that 20 minute ride back home to pray the rosary together. She gets the pants at the house (while I shovel the driveway...yes we had snow) and then we are off to school. She is looking through my CD collection in the car and notices two that I haven't opened yet. Both are from the Catholic motivational speaker Matthew Kelly.

I take that as a sign and start listening to "A Call to Joy" after I dropped her at school. I could really relate to the story as it unfolded.

Then it was back to the hotel to pick up my son to take him to his preschool. He proceeded to throw-up in the car. So, another detour...home to bathe him, wash his clothes and his car seat, etc. Luckily I have VPN so was able to get some work done while waiting at home for my wife to return.

So, I get into work (finally)...the morning was definitely not going according to my timeline.

Then I remember that I have a lunch meeting today and will not make it to mass. Now mind you, mass is normally the highlight of my day. My mother goes to daily mass, has for years...I used to think she was crazy for going everyday...isn't once a week enough?

But now that I am older, I hate going a day without mass...it centers my day, and as long as I can receive the Eucharist, I feel like I have accomplished something.

The day continues to fly along...not on my timeline...but I am still at peace.

Then I get the call from my wife that I have to drop everything to go pick up my daughter from school because her school bus is broken, hasn't left school yet, and they've had the kids on the bus for an hour.

So, "blow off" my meeting with my boss's boss...run to school...get my daughter...nicely file a complaint that they left the kids on the bus for an hour...rush back to work...walk into the aforementioned meeting late...back to the office and another meeting.

Then the snow starts really sticking and I make the call to cancel the church event for the evening.

So today did not at all go my way...but it didn't matter.

I started my day with prayer and focused on the opportunities for prayer I had throughout the day. Having to drive back to the house for my daughter's school pants would have really angered me a few years ago...but now I can look at it as an opportunity. A red light gives me an opportunity to finish a few more prayers, or another program on a CD...it is no longer an annoyance.

Starting my day with a few minutes of prayer, and trying to center my day on what I can do for God has made all of the difference in my inner peace and happiness level. I haven't felt this happy since I was in grade-school.

Now, how do I take those 40 years it took me to reach that level of inner peace, and condense and package it so my children can learn it in far fewer years without having to do all of the aimless wandering, and fruitless searching in all of the wrong places that I did?