It’s funny how the most important lessons we learn in life come at the most inopportune times. For me this week, it was after my third night in a row of terrible sleep followed by long days with my son in which we were both cranky, tired and sick. This is not the most suitable learning environment, but then again parenthood teaches you that “perfect” seldom exists and ya just gotta wing it.
At any rate, on the night in question every entity in my house conspired to keep me awake. The baby-in-waiting was kicking me in the ribs with such vigour I woke up half dazed and fearful I was in labour (of course, once I woke up enough to realize what was going on, I knew that was only wishful thinking). Then Jaden woke up because of his cold. Now usually I pretend to still be asleep so my husband gets up and deals with the late night calls, but owing to my frequent nighttime bathroom visits (I count my bladder as a fellow conspiring entity in this case…), I always have to get up anyway. Then my husband was sawing logs with such vim, not even a poke in the arm could stop him. I envied him his sleep. Also I felt bad that I kept waking him up with my tossing and turning, so I moved to the couch. This was all in the first two hours of “sleeping”.

Usually getting on the couch means I can relax - it’s softer for my hips and no snoring. But not this particular night! Oh no! Just as I began to doze off, Cat One jumped on my side and began the process of kneading. If I stop him he’ll just keep trying so I deal with it for the two or three minutes until he finally lays down. Then Cat Two finds a random plastic toy Jaden has left on the floor - the hardwood floor. I am fully prepared to let him have it, and pretend not to hear. But of course this wakes up my dear husband, who throws on a light and then takes the toy away. Then feels the need to chase down Cat Two before toddling off back to bed for more blissful sleep. But the fun doesn’t stop there! Cat Two finds ANOTHER random plastic toy, and now Cat One joins in the fun. Again, tempted to ignore this because lying down feels so good, I wait to see what happens. My husband gets up again and puts on even more lights to find out what’s going on. I don’t even pretend to be asleep anymore, but instead get up and remove a toy and some bits of paper I know the cats will find next. Once everyone (except me of course) settles down again, I get up and go on the computer. What else is one going to do between the hours of 2:00 and 3:30? I catch up on emails to people I don’t write enough because I’m too busy blogging, I prepare my post for a blog carnival, I read my site stats. Finally I doze off around four only to be up for the day at six.

Now this might sound like a shameless lament of a tired, pregnant woman ready to burst. But surprisingly not! I felt exhausted sure, but for some strange reason I knew the day was going to be okay. My sweet husband (whom I instantly forgave his snoring transgressions from the night previous) offered to stay home so I could rest. Jaden was sick, but surprisingly not too cranky, and I just knew we could make it. And that’s when I realized it. There are many mornings lately when the days seems insurmountable: days where I feel like turning on the TV and going back to bed. And with that kind of attitude the day is just awful. But on a day when I felt so crummy, I was able to keep it together just by remembering to take it just one step at a time and taking a lot of deep breaths.

And then it hit me. The ability to have patience really is all about perspective. If you perceive an event as awful, then you won’t have the patience to deal with it. But if you can just find a way to accept that the conditions are not perfect (nor will they really ever be), you will find an amazing ability to deal with each challenge with grace, humor and acceptance.