Y’all. Have you seen Hamilton?!

 

 

Maybe I’m a little late to the party, but we just saw Hamilton when it was released on Disney Plus last week. Ever since we watched it, our house has been rocking to the soundtrack and my kids are shooting out Hamilton memes in their Hangouts groups. Now, we’d listened to some of the soundtrack before and loved the music and history lessons and style, but I didn’t understand the hype until we watched it.

Before we went on vacation (I know, how did we go on vacation? More on that later…) I’d seen the promos for the release on July 3rd. I was so excited! On July 1st while I was sitting on the beach scrolling through my phone, I saw a reminder for the show. I told the whole family about it and the kids were hyped up, ready to watch it together on Friday. It was incredible! I’d heard the live tickets were $1000 – now I see why.

If you haven’t seen it, you’ve probably heard about it. But in case you haven’t, the story is a musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton and his contributions to the founding of the United States. But the story is told in rap, spoken word, song, and using a cast comprised of mostly people of color. It’s powerful. But there’s one scene that keeps coming up in my mind over and over. This isn’t a spoiler – this story is history so there’s no secret, and what I’m going to write won’t ruin the show if you haven’t seen it. But if you’re one of those people who don’t like to know ANY of the story before you see it, skip down a paragraph…

 

The oldest Schuyler sister is giving the toast at the wedding reception of her middle sister to Hamilton when she has a flashback moment of when she met Hamilton herself and passed him off to her (also) eligible sister. She sings about how she sees the possible outcomes of the situation and why even though she wants him, there are multiple reasons why she must decide not to pursue a romance with him. She’s incredibly insightful, quick, smart, and strong. I think she’s my favorite character in the story!

 

 

But there are very few moments when I see future events unfolding in my life with the clarity she had at that moment. I try to stay in step with the Spirit and listen so I can act as He has planned, but a lot of the insights I have seem to be in hindsight. Have you ever noticed that? When I look back, that’s when I can see how things worked out. After the solution to the problem comes, that’s when I understand why the challenge was needed. It’s when I reflect back over time that I can see how God was moving all the pieces of my life around just the way they needed to be.

 

It was on vacation when I started seeing this pattern. The puzzle I’d ordered finally came and I brought it to put together in case it rained, which being on a beach it did one of the days. Let me explain the vacation though. You know I’m very serious about the reality of COVID-19 and I’ve been extremely careful and taken every precaution since the beginning to keep me and my family protected. So how did I go on a beach vacation in the midst of the pandemic? Very, very carefully. I had specific criteria for what kind of accommodations I was looking for and exactly what location I would accept. It had to be a single-family house on the beach so we could walk directly out to the sand and back in the house without being around other people. There had to be very little chance we’d be near other families, so I chose a place that had a little strip of sand in front of a row of a few well-spaced private homes. The house was cleaned before we arrive and I wiped the entire house with disinfecting wipes and aired out the house before I allowed the family in the door. Everyone can’t do what we did because there aren’t enough houses for rent in the world for everyone to do their summer vacation this way. But I found one that worked, so we went. We stopped once for gas and a potty break along the way (wearing our masks), packed lunch in the car from home, and carried all our food for the week away. We didn’t eat out, we didn’t go on any excursions, and we didn’t spend time with anyone outside of our family. We spent time together on the semi-private beach and in the house. And we drove home the same way.

 

This was our beach.

 

Back to the puzzle. I never did puzzles as a kid – just hated all of them. No Rubik’s cube, no flat puzzles, none of it. But I saw this beautiful African queen puzzle and I just fell in love. And the thought that this would be a wholesome family activity made me click “buy”. So here’s this 1000 piece puzzle and it’s raining this one day on vacation, so why not? I’m telling you, I didn’t really want to do it. But I laid it out and my husband got involved and we started finding the edge pieces. It started coming together, very slowly. After a few hours of consistent effort, we had half of the edges done.

 

 

Once we got the border done, I rolled it up in the puzzle mat and it traveled back home with us. I laid it open on the dining room table and little by little we worked at it. My husband and I sat up for a few nights in a row, looking for patterns and moving around the table changing our perspective to make it fit together. The more we sat there, the more the pieces started coming together. There was something about putting one piece after another together that all of a sudden, the next steps became clear. And I started thinking about my life. I remember when I wasn’t sure I’d ever get the change to get married. I remember wanting babies and not being sure if I’d have any. When I look back, it’s so clear how God moved all the pieces into place to create this family of six that I couldn’t imagine back then.

 

 

I’m in that place again where I can’t see how things are going to come together. I kinda thought by now I’d be on autopilot – career – check. Husband – check. Kids – check. Just show up and do my best every day and we’ll all grow, right? Apparently not! I’m building a coaching business because I’ve been called to use my life, my medical background, my holistic nutrition education, and my love for women to help women lose weight. And I don’t know anything about being an entrepreneur – nothing! But I know that the pieces are coming together. I’m going to have those moments of frustration – like when I just swear one of the kids has lost the one piece I need to get the next part of the puzzle done! And then I find it, and usually, it was right there all along. So here I go, building this new puzzle in my life. And I’m grateful that I know God has built many in my life before, and He’ll do it again!

 

Do you have a new puzzle in your life that needs work? How are you encouraging yourself to keep building, even when it’s hard? Please share in the comments below!

And, I need five volunteer clients to do a 20-30 minute coaching session with me to help me finish my certification requirements – comment below if you’re interested and I’ll set up a free session with you!

 

And for those of you who need to find a way to catch your breath, here a quick practice I put together that you can do anytime! Don’t worry – if you’re following the weight loss Going Deeper series, we’ll be back to it next week, so stay ready!