{"id":192,"date":"2014-11-07T19:45:53","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T19:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?p=192"},"modified":"2014-11-07T19:48:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T19:48:00","slug":"192","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/11\/192.html","title":{"rendered":"Are You Living the “Posed” or “Chaotic” Moments of Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had many years where I would say I lived a life that was pretty perfect. <\/p>\n

I was low stress, organized, philanthropic, living in the moment and overall, I would say, pretty much together. <\/p>\n

Then things fell apart.<\/p>\n

While I tried to save my marriage as only a party of one……….I neglected to truly accept that the party was over.<\/p>\n

It was humbling accepting my less than perfect life. After all, I had a hand in creating it.<\/p>\n

My high school friend, Christy Largent interviewed me recently for her podcast, \u201cEncouraging Words for Working Moms.\u201d <\/p>\n

http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/k6ennx4<\/p>\n

It was a great conversation of two old friends reconnecting and reflecting. <\/p>\n

While twisting and turning through my journey. I told Christy, \u201cYou want to make every day joyful, but not every day perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the truth that accompanies my new perspective. I was fighting, rather than living my journey. There is goodness in imperfection. No, I would say there is a greatness that lives within imperfection. The messier side of life that I tried to avoid is what I now embrace.<\/p>\n

In fact, I wish I had pictures of the chaotic moments. <\/p>\n

The ones where all three of my boys were covered in dirt on my front step.<\/p>\n

The toy trashed family room that held what they called, \u201ctheir stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n

The exhausted mornings when they slept on the kitchen table rather than ate their breakfast.<\/p>\n

The slurpee spilling moments in the backseat of the car.<\/p>\n

The element of surprise catching them climbing to reach the kitchen cabinet filled with treats.<\/p>\n

The discovery of the brand new wooden chair they carved their names in.<\/p>\n

The sweet moments they suddenly huddled next to each other on the couch.<\/p>\n

The loving mementos strewn all over the house left just for me…..candy wrappers, melted chocolate, perfectly chewed gum, clothes, balls, cleats, helmets, and more.<\/p>\n

Dare I even say, as the mother of three boys, the bathrooms that I would rather not enter and the trail of clothes thrown all over the hallway that took them to it.<\/p>\n

Yes, I wish I had more pictures of the chaotic moments and not the posed moments.<\/p>\n

After all, the posed pictures weren\u2019t really moments.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t share anything except the click of the camera…….an attempt to capture perfection.<\/p>\n

I want the messy moments back. The ones where we were really living life.<\/p>\n

The ones \u201cwhen every day was joyful, but not perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

(I would love to challenge everyone to start taking pics of the chaotic, messy moments)<\/p>\n

Follow me on Facebook @Colleen Sheehy Orme
\nTwitter @colleenorme
\nPinterest @colleensheehyorme
\nE-mail: Colleen.Sheehy.Orme@gmail.com<\/p>\n

For More information on Christy Largent:
\nFollow her on Facebook @Christy Largent Speaker
\nTwitter @ChristyLargent.
\n\"MyguysSeaIsle\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Born to my native Brooklyn parents, I have a love of all things city and all things country. I found myself in the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which prior to The Office, nary a soul could envision less you found yourself on the hills of Interstate 81. I was held up there while I pursued my B.S. in Business. I have two passions: Business marketing and writing. The two are not so terribly different. Why? Cultivating a brand is in essence the story and the connecting of the dots of a corporate entity. I write features for various magazines and newspapers and I am a national divorce columnist (what can I say things didn\u2019t turn out quite the way I thought they would). I am also a former business columnist. For more than fifteen years, I spent my summers on the Jersey Shore in what I call my \u2018out of state\u2019 clothes once again magnetized to the northerners I find so familiar. If I were to brand my writing, I would say I write of LOVE. That is the core from which I begin most stories. I find myself drawn to dig for the moments in the story that are the passion that drive the message. It may be the love of what originally started a business or an authentically motivated personal profile, or simply the love of a subject being investigated which compels me to write. My forever favorite form of writing is the human interest essay or what I call, \u201cAn Interview With Life.\u201d The average day that is explored and somehow once again instills in us a joie de vivre\u2026..a joy of life. These human moments are the Hope Virus that spreads amongst us and can\u2019t help but propel us into better human beings with a larger sense of the world.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/author\/corme"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions\/197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}