The Third Thing

I can't take full credit for this blog.

The words are mine, yes.

The thoughts are mine, sure yes. 

But the wisdom? I cannot take credit for it. I've got some great people in my corner who look me in the eye and say we believe in you! here's some wisdom! let us help you as you journey on! 

Every time I write, you get a glimpse into my people. You're welcome.

One of these people asked me the other day what my third thing is. 

What's your third thing, he said. 

What's the thing that you're neither achieving in nor competitive at? What's your place, where you can relax, your outlet? Besides 1) work and 2) school, what's your 3) thing?

my third thing!

So I started thinking about this third thing (to help with the hard thing). And what sometimes happens with these kinds of thoughts and these kinds of prayers is you often just stumble into the answer and find yourself face first in it. It's the way God sometimes works. Like, for example, how another one of my people gave me a cookbook suggestion a few weeks ago and I started sitting down and meal planning and looking at recipes and it all came together my third thing! 

I have never been much of a meal planner. Or a cook. I just never made time for it. Girl gotta eat, but girl don't think ahead on what to eat. It made for an exhausting (and expensive) and confusing (lol) lifestyle. But the times that I did make time for it, I found that I loved being in the kitchen! I love the activity of it, the task of it, the idea of it. Music on, hands busy. I delighted in it. 

I wasn't making time for the things I delighted in. 

What a tragedy. 

I've taken on meal planning/cooking/baking/time in the kitchen as my third thing. It's teaching me discipline, time management, how to relax. It's giving me TIME, time to take the thoughts of the day and swirl them around, keeping some and throwing some away. It's giving me an excuse to buy another moleskine and create another schedule. It's giving me time to decompress after a work day. Time to cushion and breathe before I start school work. IT ALSO GIVES ME FOOD AND SUSTENANCE SO I CAN SURVIVE. There's also that. 

And the more I think on it, the more I think this is really important. If my third thing doesn't win, if I don't choose my third thing, I choose apathy. or fear. There's a lot riding on the third thing, and oh man, that gives me so much freedom. 

So, I'll choose to spend an hour and a half in the grocery store and shop with purpose (holla at Kip Green, who roamed that store with me like a boss). I'll choose to cook ground beef at 9:00 at night (because sometimes, people, that's what it takes). I'll choose to smell all the things - garlic! thyme! parsley! cilantro! 

It's what I'm always learning. I am doing over and over again, am reminded over and over again, to take time to do what I love. To do the things that fill my soul, that I delight in, that bring me rest and peace. A place I can hit the pause button on all the things and breathe deep and free. Writing is another one, because you know I'm all about that. I've found myself in this sweet, desperate place where I am willing to do what the third thing takes. Pursue it, sacrifice for it. Because the measure of its worth is invaluable.