Life is a Sleight of Hand Trick

Life is one big sleight of hand trick.

Hear me out.

You’re going along your business, doing what need to be done. Maybe you’re in the season of littles. Toddlers running around. Little chairs. Little plates. Little toys and clothes. Maybe you’re in the big kid big problem stage. Maybe you’re an empty nest or a no nest. The point is–you’re at some stage in life and you’re working through it. You’re rolling up your sleeves and getting into the down and dirty nitty gritty of this thing you call your life.

And while you’re focused on that, something else blows up in your face.

You stay home for two days because a family member is sick. But while you’re measuring doses of medicine and taking temperatures, a project at work falls apart.

You’re working longer hours to earn that promotion you deserve, but you failed to see your best friend hurting in silence.

Your children are happy but your spouse seems distant. You and your spouse have never been stronger, but your teens can’t get their act together.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Life is one big sleight of hand trick. It’s constantly moving, shifting. It’s not just a roller coaster with ups and downs–it’s a Tilt-a-Whirl, dizzying while it tosses you from side to side.

This is how I’ve been feeling lately. Just when I think I have a handle on things, something blows up in my face. It’s exhausting trying to keep up. For example, I thought I would have so much time to work on this blog when school started up again and I would have a few hours a day in peace and quiet. Yet, somehow, my days are filled with stuff, so much so, that most days by the end, I have no idea where my time went.

But what I discovered on those days when the hours fly by with busyness and yet nothing seems to ever get done, was that those are the days I need the rosary the most. It’s my anchor. My steadying arm. The foundation I can rely on to keep the rest of my life standing.

If I make the time for the rosary, life in general is easier to carry. I am nowhere close to being perfect at making the time. I had set out with a goal of saying a daily rosary this past month, and I fell disappointingly short, by half. And I felt it, the impact it had on my days.

It had been about a week since my last rosary, but I picked it up this morning–okay, not really picked it up, but I listened and prayed along to the rosary on the Hallow app, and that little knot in my gut that I get when I’m afraid of forgetting something dissolved. A gentle reminder to stop putting it off and start making the rosary a priority again.

In a previous post, I listed all the promises the Blessed Mother made to those who pray her rosary faithfully. What it all comes down to is this one thing:

Praying the rosary will bring you peace in the storm.

I hope you are finding peace. And if you’ve tried to make the rosary a habit, but feel that you’ve failed, you are not alone. But don’t give up. The peace is there for you. We can do this together. Let’s start again.