bitterSWEET vs BITTERsweet
This post is written by Mama Rice
Recently we made the decision to sell our sno cone shack. We have owned it for five years & really it was my dream for many years before that & my family graciously went along with it. But as our kids have grown & left the nest, it just no longer makes sense for us. After our first meeting with some potential buyers, Alli asked me how I was feeling about it all. My response was, I feel relieved but also a little sad, if I’m being honest. What she said back to me was really profound to me & I have been thinking about it SO much since then.
“That is the very definition of the word, bittersweet, Mom. Sometimes in life it will feel like BITTER is capitalized & the sweet is written really small, but then other times it will feel like the SWEET is capitalized & the bitter is written really small.”
I’m sure Alli had no idea just how much I would think about that after our conversation. I shared it with my friends at coffee one morning & as I was driving home I got to thinking about it even more. We have to be so careful that we don’t get STUCK in those moments where the BITTER feels way bigger than the sweet. Sometimes when life feels hard, we will have to be intentional in looking for the SWEET.
My husband & I are recent empty nesters & I have to be honest & say that I can get stuck feeling BITTER about how things keep going after my kids are gone. Can you believe they still have volleyball games & football games to cheer for & back to school dances, even though my kids aren’t here to do it? Ha! But not having to pack school lunches or run a pair of forgotten shoes up to the school in the middle of a work day feels pretty SWEET. It feels pretty BITTER that we are no longer spending all day at volleyball tournaments cheering Avery on. But it also feels pretty SWEET spending all day in Manhattan tailgating & cheering on the Wildcats & soaking in some time with all of our kiddos!
So here’s to being intentional with understanding my feelings when it comes to bittersweet situations.
