My boys are all back to school this week. I’m excited for some form of structure. Even though what I think all of us have gotten better at during this season of our lives is flexibility.

You think you’re going to have a school like normal? Think again. You want to celebrate your 40th birthday with a big bash? How about outside in the below zero weather. Would you like to celebrate holidays with your in laws after spending Christmas at a VRBO? Perhaps rush your mother in law out of your home instead after discovering your youngest is positive for Covid.

All of us, every last one of us, has had this in common as of late. What we hoped and planned to happen doesn’t always happen.

I watch my boys get this lesson time and time again but the one who needs to learn it most is me.

The child in me used to come out when I wanted something so badly to happen but it absolutely would not happen. A grumpy, pain in the ass, kind of child.

Then last year I decided to try something new as my 40th birthday came around. Instead of fighting all the change I didn’t ask for could I find a way to embrace it?

Thus began a new way of thinking that I try to continue today.

Celebrating in the cold on my birthday last year and again this year because of Covid doesn’t feel like a battle. It feels like a gift, an opportunity to see life in a new light.

Last year the women who came to my Hygge parties and lingered for longer than an hour or two as temperatures dropped to below zero and the fire we tried to build fell again and again I saw my friends see themselves in a new way.

Amazing, strong, super human.

We will find a way through this latest obstacle because we don’t see it as a hurdle. We see how we can grow, evolve, and gain strength.

Embracing.