Not In Dees Shoes
Probably my favorite moment from our wedding day had nothing to do with my actual marriage, but rather my flower girls’ reaction.
My niece was about two and a half at the time of the wedding. About 10 minutes before we were to walk down the aisle, she threw herself down on the floor and cried. She kept saying "I can't do this" over and over again. My mother calmed her down and got her ready to go. We lined up to go down the aisle and right before it was her turn, she looked up at my father with tear-filled eyes and said "Papa, I can't do this, Papa. Not in dees shoooes."
My father, in his infinite wisdom, reached down and took her shoes off. Then off she went, walking down the aisle barefoot.
I find great wisdom in this story. In the preceding moments, we thought that it was the "bigness" of being a flower girl that overwhelmed her- assuming that she couldn't do it alone or without her parents. Really it just came down to wearing a pair of uncomfortable shoes.
Her statement is something that I quote regularly. Especially in moments of frustration, I will throw my hands up and say "I can't do this, not in dees shoooes." It makes me smile in the midst of something challenging.
There is a beautiful analogy here about how we take on our own problems. It is all too common for us to throw ourselves down on the floor, all be it just emotionally, and screaming "I can't do this." We cannot remove the stressors in our life they're going to exist. But we can adjust our response to stress.
We can stop, breathe, and think. It is only then that we will understand that more often than not our challenge at the root is just a pair of ill-fitting shoes.