life can just be so freakin stressful

▪️ Can we all agree that life is nuts?

If we are being honest, life has been craaaazy lately. It always seems to pick up at this time of year, is it just me? Like, September to December is kind of a WHOOSH, and things just get away from us.

For me, aside from the typical Autumn-to-Winter tornado of stuff, I have added to my own chaos by adding a furry little responsibility to my household. We are absolutely in LOVE with our new little puppy, Pepper (emphasis on little--she recently graudated from weighing 3 lbs to weighing 4 lbs). But puppies are a lot of work!

We knew she would take all our time and energy, but after being sleep-deprived from middle-of-the-night potty breaks, it's not as fun to remember that I expected this.

Regardless, we love her and she is worth the new chaos. One thing that has NOT been as welcome into our chaos, is that I got sick a week after we got Pepper. So not only are we running around to decide if her sniffing is just sniffing (or if it means she is about to poop in the living room), BUT now I'm coughing, hacking, sniffling, and laying on the couch a lot with a head cold.

Not life-threatening, but also very annoying.

Super good timing, amiright?

None of this is to complain that woe is me, (though I have felt a tiny bit woe), but instead to say that life. happens. and it is busy. and exciting, but exhausting. and sometimes it bites a little. (I'm looking at you, puppy-teeth Pepper.)

▪️ An unexpected topic shift to candles

tbh, this kind of life-chaos is the whole reason why I think candles are important. *insert your immediate thought: "wtf are you talking about? not everything is about candles. 🙄 "*

But hear ye, hear ye: candles to me represent something that you do for yourself, for no other reason than because you enjoy it. They don't add any tangible benefit to your life, other than looking nice and smelling nice and giving you a bit of joy.

So even when life is like, "qn#s%wfn@isx(48BFUw834!!", a candle burning on the kitchen table while you run around doing dishes, wrapping your grandma's 85th birthday present, peeling something (?) inexplicably sticky off your kid's shoe, and/or realizing that you completely forgot your dentist appointment yesterday (CRAP!), a nice candle isn't going to erase all that.

▪️ Okay, how is a candle going to actually help?

When you are in the middle of the stress tornado (seriously, WHAT was that sticky thing and WHY was it that color??), when you stop to take a deep breath, it'll smell like a deliciously boozy forest (*ahem* shop Wicked here before Halloween!) and you'll have a moment of, "ahh. that is nice."

When life gets so ridiculously insane, we might only have the time for one or two seconds of, "ahh. that is nice." But we still deserve to have them.

So light a candle before you wrestle the screaming children, realize that the mysterious sticky thing is emanating from a cargo pants pocket, or get up to take your pup out for another potty break even thought she just went 20 minutes ago.

You deserve the "ahh. that is nice." even if just for a (very brief) moment.

Chaotically yours,