Are you at MAXIMUM CAPACITY?

capacity hope purpose the everyday woman Sep 11, 2019

What is your comfort food?

Over the weekend my entire family came down with a stomach bug. My entire family. All five of us. What a vision: four of us sprawled out on various couches and chairs, covered in blankets, watching 1990s family movies, offering each other millions of non-existent dollars to go upstairs for crackers or ginger ale or to please, for the love of all that is holy, make sure Joey isn’t tearing down the house! Because Joey’s energy level, as it turns out, cannot be deterred by a little puking and diarrhea. No, sir. He wanted to play.

But I digress.

For two days, my stomach churned at the thought of the chicken enchiladas I had so carefully crafted on Friday night. In fact, nothing in my fridge or pantry seemed edible. Except for one small thing. My comfort food. Lipton’s Cup o’ Soup.

No judging, please. And no gentle reminders about preservatives and chemicals and all that. It’s my comfort food, the thing you long for when you’re at your lowest, when nothing else will do. I need my reconstituted chicken broth and tiny noodles in a mug, thankyouverymuch.

maximum capacity

But I have a little dilemma when it comes to my Cup o’ Soup. I really want to drink it in my favorite mug—the one advertising Stars Hollow’s own Luke’s Diner. (If you don’t get a Gilmore Girls reference, I’m not sure we can still be friends.) But my Luke’s mug is too big. If I put in the right amount of water for the soup, the cup is barely half-full. It looks pathetic. If I add water to fill the mug, my soup is watery and bland.

These are big important dramas when you are sick and miserable and possibly dying of a stomach bug!

It took a little searching and most of my available energy, but I finally found the perfect mug. It’s actually one my husband bought me a few years ago from a writer-y store that says, “Eat. Sleep. Write. Repeat.” I like the mug and love the sentimentality of it, but since Luke moved in—ahem, since I received my Luke’s mug—the writer mug hadn’t seen the light of day much.

But this weekend, I needed it. I needed something with just the right capacity. Not so big that my meager meal seems pitiful. Not so small that I have no room left for crackers (an essential part of the Cup o’ Soup experience). My writer mug was the perfect fit for the job.

I didn’t get mad at my Luke’s mug. I didn’t demand that it morph into something smaller. I use that mug on a daily basis, and it’s the perfect size for a cup of tea to accompany me while I write. (Let’s not talk about the whole coffee addiction thing in Gilmore Girls. I don’t do coffee. Luke is OK with it.)

I have a variety of coffee and tea cups. I enjoy each one. Some are beautiful, some remind me of special people, some of special memories. Each one has a unique look, a unique capacity, and a unique purpose.

Does that sound familiar? It should, because it is true of you, too. You were created just as you are, on purpose and for a purpose. You don’t need to look like anyone else—the world already has one of her, it needs one of you. You don’t need to have the same capacity as anyone else—let them serve their purpose and you serve yours.

 

You were created just as you are, on purpose and for a purpose.CLICK TO TWEET

 

Do you have a favorite mug? Go pull it off the shelf, pour yourself a steaming cup of your hot beverage of choice, and let it remind you to appreciate your unique—and perfect—purpose. Then go out and live it.

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