I must have made quite the sight this morning as I walked from the kitchen to my office holding my coffee mug in my left hand, my ice-water cup in my right hand, while trying to balance my iPad. As I navigated the minefield that is the house of Hectic Grandson…dodging Duplos and dinosaurs, cars and pillows, stuffed animals and pushtoys…both my water and coffee were sloshing about in their respective vessels. My singular goal was to make it to the office without spilling either the coffee or water. In the back of my mind, I was willing to sacrifice the iPad to avoid spillage.

With each step, the coffee roiled back and forth, approaching the lip of the mug, but never going over. Likewise, the tsunami of water vacillated from settling in the middle of the cup to near-escape at the highest point. Being who I am, I attempted to discover the pattern of sloshing with regards to my steps. With the right footstep, which cup had a near-cataclysm? When the left footfall occurred, where was the danger?

Successfully traversing the passage from kitchen to office I was no closer to unlocking the secret of footfall-to-sloshing. But, more importantly, there were no spills along the route!

At that point, I realized those the coffee mug and water cup were a pretty good allegory for my life. I simultaneously paid attention to two things that were competing for my attention, and kept both from becoming a disaster. Sure, the coffee teetered on the edge multiple times. The water licked the rim of the cup, only to return to relatively stability. But in both cases, the liquids remained ensconced in their vessels without any spillage.

It struck me that this is often how I end up dealing with my kids and wife. I give just enough attention that one immediate problem is settled, then I have to shift my focus to someone else who has encountered a problem. I’ll work on that problem just long enough to get it righted, but then I’m forced to switch my focus back to the first kiddo to address the frequent over-reaction or over-application of force she employed.

Slosh, switch focus, slosh, switch focus.

It’s a never ending process of disaster avoidance and shifting focus. Everybody around me is living a very active life, and as such we all encounter a continual parade of problems to be solved. We have our stresses, our joys, our concerns, and our issues. It’s a constant trail of nearly overflowing coffee mugs and sloshing water cups. And oftentimes, they turn to me for advice, guidance, or just somebody to listen to them while they articulate the situation. On many days, when I finally fall into bed, I’m completely exhausted from so much interaction. My brain is on the verge of exploding as I mentally recap the disasters of the day that were somehow (almost miraculously) averted.

Yet I wouldn’t have it any other way. With our ability to text, e-mail, instant message, FaceTime, and call we’re in close contact. Despite the fact that my family is flung from Maine to Colorado and Minnesota to Kansas, we have virtually instant access to each other. We’ve got a fantastic support network of engaged, interested, and involved family members who are willing to step up for each other whenever necessary, in any way possible.

So while I may be exhausted at night, I know that we’re remaining a close-knit family. Maybe a little bit weird to observe from the outside, but knit together in ways that make us so much stronger for being part of the fabric.

At the end of the day, that’s pretty amazing!