So much of life seems to be what you do in between the “payoffs.” Showing up to work on Monday morning when you really don’t want to, taking your kids to practice when you’ve had a really awful day, walking the dogs even though it’s the last thing in the world you want to do. Consistently showing up and doing the work of life. My thoughts today tell me that’s the key. The days when you have the “payoff” those are easy. Great days, everyone wants those, but the in between…that’s tough, but without them you’d never have the “payoff.”

There’s a cactus outside my house at the base of the stairs. It was transplanted two or three times during the construction of our house. It gets really yellow during the winter and almost looks like it’s going to die. During the summer it’s spiky and grey looking and kind of ugly. I’m never quite sure how it hangs on. I don’t water it, it lives in the wild and most days it looks like mother nature is beating it up. But, in spring it produces the most magnificent flowers. Ten to fifteen blooms that are breath taking. They bloom for about a week and then die. During that week this cactus is the star of our house, everyone goes out to look at it in the morning and in the evening before dinner. We are drawn to it and then it goes back to being “the cactus at the base of the stairs.” The “payoff” for this cactus is short, but brilliant and in my mind I believe it works hard to survive all year just for that one extraordinary week.

In most lives there are brief “payoffs.” Our week of glory is spread out over twelve months, but those glimmers of extraordinary make the rest of it all seem worth it.

That’s all from the laundry room today. Smell the flowers!

Cactus daily thoughts life meaning Phoenix struggle thoughts Uncategorized life thoughts whatever women