Do you ever wake up one morning and think “Well. This is it. Today’s the day. I’ve officially run out.” Of words, ideas, motivation, gas, tape, chicken nuggets. As a mom and a writer, I’m expected to never run out of any of those things. I’m expected to have an endless, open, overflowing wellspring of the things (whatever the things are). My cup should runneth over. And yet, it doesn’t. It rarely does.
My cup struggles most days.
Half empty or half full? It depends on the weather or my tweenager’s attitude or if I’m having a good hair day or how many unread emails are in my inbox. Maybe my cup is full. Maybe it’s empty. Maybe, just maybe, I need to stop beating myself and my cup up and remind myself of some very basic steps. Steps of grace. Steps forward and towards full.
Just start.
Whether it’s dinner or working out or this month’s piece for Chattanooga Moms, just start. Because as cliché as it sounds, starting is the hardest part. There will never be more in your cup until you start filling it.
It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Your house doesn’t have to be perfect. Your kid doesn’t have to be perfect. Your words don’t have to be perfect. And, spoiler alert, they won’t be. Do you feel like you’ve run out of perfect? Is there no more perfect left in your bottomless, empty cup? Well, guess what? You can’t run out of something that doesn’t exist.
You get to decide.
Running out of whatever thing you’ve run out of is OK. Because YOU get to decide how to renew, recharge, and refill. Don’t like what was in your cup before? The choice of what to put in it now is yours. Actually, you get to decide that every time. Somewhere along the way, you probably forgot that, didn’t you?
Writer’s block and mom’s block are so painfully similar. You have this blank in your mind. This empty cup where words and parenting used to be. But, don’t worry. Just start. Allow yourself and your words and your parenting to be imperfect. Then decide how to refill it. After all, it’s your cup.
