THREE THINGS MY HUSBAND DOES DIFFERENT.

***note: I sat down to write this blog & had my notes all out from thoughts I had throughout the day, & this ended up taking a whole turn down another road! I had no intentions of talking about what you are about to read, but it kind of just happened! gonna just go with it!***

I know we all have them- those days, weeks, months- where time just is moving at the speed of light and you actually can’t keep up. You’re not really sure where to begin & end each day as they all just kind of start to run together and you catch yourself counting down the days until the next “thing” is scheduled to happen…

That’s pretty much how I roll with my life 95% of the time- just constantly on to the next thing, next task, next event… that way too often do I take a step back and figure out how I’m actually feeling about things or what they actually mean for me & my family. 

For about the past year, Dave has been so ambitious and working and training so hard to prepare for a hockey tournament in Switzerland where he would be representing USA. It’s been his sole focus for quite some time & I’ll admit- it had been the source of some tension in our home from time to time because I often felt like he was putting hockey before me. If I truly pay attention to it- that wasn't the case at all. He was just following a passion & a dream. I'm so proud of him & even more proud that should we be blessed with children one day, they're going to have a role model like him to take after. 

But, while he was away, some really cool things started clicking for me. I’m sorry that it took so long for me to see all of these qualities in my own husband, but better now than never, right?

1. BE UNIQUE.

How often do we hear this and we think, “yep. got it. we’re good with the unique factor”… but, truthfully, what makes you awesome? what makes you tick? what do you bring to the world that no one else does. 

Dave is extremely hard working & motivated… & humble. While these are all qualities you can find in numerous people, what is different about him is that he has quite a few unique factors about himself that could actually hinder him- but instead, they make him work harder. For example, he is a type 1 diabetic. He’s 31. How many 31-year-old diabetics do you know that would train day in and day out to be able to play at a world class level like he just did? I don’t know too many. & I don’t say all of this to brag or boast on the man, but seriously… he’s pretty stinking awesome. Even if he wasn’t my husband, I’m pretty sure I’d still be impressed with his level of work ethic and resilience. 

2. BE AUTHENTICALLY WHOEVER YOU ARE ON ANY GIVEN DAY.

One of my biggest confusions is when someone says to me “be yourself”… because honestly, I have NO CLUE who I am from one day to the next. Telling someone to be yourself just opens up a whole can of worms in this brain of mine & I start really getting deep in my thinking… but, then I started witnessing in Dave how you can be yourself- you just have to decide who you are in any given moment on any given day. 

Dave pretty much has an opinion on anything and everything- & he stands by it! He truthfully does not like to be proven wrong (which also has been the root of hot debate in our house) but if you just flip the way you view that quality, it can be pretty endearing. He knows what he wants and he goes after it. (He also is the one in the relationship who will say “I think we just need to agree to disagree- I’m the one who says NO & continues the argument, haha!) He respects people’s differences instead of trying to battle them for it & he truly appreciates others who are good at things in which he is not. I need to try to implement more of this in myself because I often times try to be everything to everyone instead of allowing my abilities and what I’m good at be what works for me and a gift to others. 

3. BE CHILDLIKE 

Okay, so this one thing about him… USED TO DRIVE ME NUTS! Dave says hi to EVERYONE whether he knows them, likes them, hates them, etc… he doesn’t care. He’s always overly friendly & talks to ANYONE. Recently, we were at a spa & when he came out of the bath area, he said to me how this one man in there at the same time as him was really awkward and wouldn’t look at him and he was trying to say hello. This cracked me up because that is so Dave. He comes right at you with a smile & a hello whether you like it or not. (Funny story, this is actually how I first talked to him. I suffer from RBF, but he came right at me made eye contact with me even though I was trying to avoid it, he said hello, how are you? & from that point on, I was like alright, I’m going to ask that guy out….) He waves to everyone we pass in the car. On vacations, if I leave him alone for a SECOND, he has a new friend by the time I turn around. I honestly used to get so annoyed, but then I realized that he’s one of the few that never really lost their child-like innocence. He really does believe that everyone has good intentions & when they prove him wrong, he kind of just shrugs it off as their loss. I also read an article today that interviewed some folks who had tried to commit suicide & they said some days, all they wished for was that a stranger would smile or say hello to them- it made me wonder if Dave’s ever saved any lives just by being kind?… I’ll never get on him about this habit EVER again. I think we all could use a little more child-like abandon in us. At whatever age that it is that we somehow begin to judge or not be as accepting of others- Dave skipped. 

Like I said, I don’t say all of this to brag or boast on Dave- these are actually all things that before the past week would cause me major headache, major eye rolling, battle royales in our house….. but, while I am working on myself & finding my own journey, I think it’s super important for me to take a step back & see how awesome the company I keep is… starting with the man that picked me. Out of all his options, he chose me. I think it’s time to thank him & praise him for what he’s good at instead of fight him for what I’m jealous of. 

Is there someone in your life who you admire, but you just kind of maybe never told them?

Tell them.

Life doesn’t slow down unless you force it to. 

All my joy.