Someone asked me to write on living in the world of “good enough”

As in  . . . I am walking my kids to school, the sun is shining and we are “pretty happy”, so this should all be good enough for us, right?
Or, we have good jobs, we have healthy kids, and that is all that matters . . . that is “good enough”

I have hung out at “good enough” for a long time. It is fine there.

But I know now that living a fine life, (while it is “just fine) isn’t good enough. At least not for me,.

Yes, fine is safe, and usually secure.  Your days are fairly balanced, and you usually have a routine (even if your routine is constant chaos) Fine has friends over for dinner where you (sometimes) drink too much. Fine throws really interesting kids birthday parties. Fine has the odd date night, and a yearly family vacation.

See, there really isn’t anything wrong with fine.

Except, that it is “just” fine.

And I think I would rather weather the downs in life, the “not fine” moments, just so I could sometimes experience the amazing “up” moments as well.

Yesterday I started talking about how it is almost our 1yr anniversary of “MAKING THE DECISION” All week my memory has been darting back to “last year”, reminding myself of the difference between then and now.

And last night, as we took our little sailboat for it’s first toodle about, the sun was shining on us, the girls were playing in the cabin, and Hubby and I talked about “last year”

Last year at this time he would have been racing home from work (at 7pm) tired, and stepping into a house of 3 kids, and chaos. Last year he was deeply immersed in a job site that was going to pot.  Last year we were dancing on the edge of rock bottom.

And this year, we felt the sun, and we realized that by identifying that our life (even though it was good) wasn’t good enough for us, had brought us out on the water, on a wednesday evening, surrounded by beauty.

No, I don’t think good enough is ever ok. I want to love my life, I want to love my partner and I want to inspire to happiness. It doesn’t mean that every moment is thrilled with peaks of excitement, or I laugh through every moment, of every day.

What it does mean to me, is that each day is filled with a satisfied calm. An appreciation of where I am, and what I have been given. I feel honored. Blessed, to be in my life.

So, if your life is just “good enough” I would suggest taking a long look at what you don’t want, and what you would cherish having. And then go after that. Live each day feeling blessed.  Because, yes, that is more than fine.