Stars and Cars

So tonight will you wear the pyjamas with cars?
Or do you prefer the pyjamas with stars?
Stars and cars!
                                  - Sandra Boynton, Night-Night, Little Pookie

When I was a younger woman, we were given the message from popular culture that we could have it all. We could have a successful career, a fulfilling marriage, raise happy, healthy children, work out at the gym, volunteer in the community, have wonderful hobbies. On and on the list went. Then when that didn't work out so well, we got another message. We can't have it all. It might be more accurate to say that we can have it all, but it needs to happen at different times. We must have our priorities, and sometimes that means choosing one or the other.

However, I think we limit ourselves unnecessarily when we make life an either/or proposition. We tell ourselves stories like, I can work or go back to school. I can travel, or stay close to my family. I can devote myself to my marriage, or work on myself. I can keep to a budget, or I can eat healthier.

It's all about finding balance, I suppose. Getting the best from both worlds. It also requires a little creativity, and a willingness to be a little different. As with so many things, a little child shows us the way when we read of Little Pookie. When given the choice between his jammies with cars and his jammies with stars, he put on the top of one pair and the bottom of the other. Stars and cars.

It's my mantra today, as I challenge myself to think of the areas in my life where I am holding myself back by thinking I must choose between stars or cars. Why not stars and cars?

Susan