Fears tackled (or dirty dishes be darned!)

Facing my fears.
That's how I concluded my last blog post.
Of course I'm anxious about war and crime and homelessness and disease.
But are these the things that stress me out on a daily basis? Maybe. But maybe the all too common feeling of "overwhelm" is what really gets the fear ball rolling around on my court.
This morning I woke up to a full sink -- and counter-top --  of dishes.

My bathrooms were relatively clean, Halleluiah, and the floors were recently vacuumed, but the laundry hamper was overflowing and my kids were crying for socks and spoons and underwear.
(Never mind that maybe it's time to teach them to wash their own socks. And spoons. I'll save that blog post for another day)
And of course I was due in to work in exactly 90 minutes.
What I wanted to do was:  A. Call in sick and spend the day catching up. 2. Blame hubby or 3. Sit down and cry.
But since none of these options would address the sickening and ongoing sense of overwhelm that comes with working-parent territory, I decided to make good on my promise to "face my fears", jump in and tackled the dish pile.

This time, instead of drearily focusing on "scrub, Scrub, SCRUB!" I invited my mind wander to fun and recent conversations, upcoming plans and "weekend activities".
Of course you know the rest of the story. In very little time the dishes were rinsed and nestled in the dish washer. The returnables bagged, the recylables shuttled to their proper basket.
Best of all, I felt like a princess.
No, a queen. The queen of my domain. 

I haven't conquered my fear of fear or all those endless anxieties.
But now, at least I know I have the heart of a warrior.
OK. The hands of a warrior?
A weekend warrior?
Oh heck. I can confidently tackle a big, scary pile of dishes.
And today, that feels pretty good :)