Mandatory Crazy

I have this friend, you see, who is crazy and wonderful and wild and wise and her birthday is the day before Halloween.  That explains a lot, of course.  Anyway, I was explaining things to my great-friend-group, of which she is a part, about what we're experiencing right now in our messed-up life and one of her responses was "Is there any crazy you can cut out that isnt mandatory right now?"  Oh Shontell, I want to be you when I grow up!

I heart that she is the kind of person who actually accepts that crazy can be a healthy part of your life and is able to determine what's mandatory and what's expendable crazy.  :::sigh:::  To be that grounded and see clearly enough to toss out the not-so-important crazy and keep the mandatory crazy and just deal with it is a gift.  It got me thinking...I'm crazy, my husband is crazy, my kids are crazy, yet we are not expendable, so clearly I cannot cut us out.  grrrrr.  What CAN I cut out, though?

The fear and uncertainty is crazy and consuming.  It has to go.  Complete faith in God and finding focus is also crazy, but a mandatory one.  It has to stay and be bettered.  Piles of laundry and unfinished projects around the house are crazy, some mandatory, some expendable. 

I was finding myself thinking today that, when I was 5 and skipping around the kindergarten playground with my other girlfriends, or playing dress-up and dreaming of the princess life I would have with my great prince husband, living in my fancy house and being chauffer driven around town, not ONCE was the crazy picture we are experiencing right now EVER inserted.  Unsual things have happened to us these past few months that have changed us forever.  We will never be the same as we all were prior to May 26th when Jon was laid off.  Max will never be the same as he was the day before the beginning of his hospital stay on June 6th. 

Parts of us have died away, new parts have been birthed.  Some of that is good, some is bad, but bottom line is we are different now.  We are also a mandatory crazy.

Jimmy Hendrix said "crazy is like heaven."

Hmmm.