This article was originally published by The Mennonite

Fabiola Flores: Five reasons I get out of bed in the morning

Fabiola Flores lives and works in Newton, Kansas. She is the assistant for Latin America at Mennonite Mission Network. This post was developed my Mennonite Mission Network staff. 

Mind you, this list is not in any particular significant order. These are simply five reasons I get out of bed in the morning, put on paper as they come to mind.

1. Camila, my beloved child. She is, in fact, the joy of my life, the greatest challenge, the puzzle, the unknown. She is the inspiration of my smiles, the sound of purpose, what if’s and certainties. She is love, and the drive that keeps me going forward. There are dreams to fulfill, stories to write, joys to experience, struggles to conquer, and things to discover. I get to do this every day along with my beloved daughter. She has her own journey, as do I, but tat this point we get to journey together on our own paths. And I love her with every bit of my soul.

We all have a purpose independent of others, but it is with others that we discover what that purpose might be, should be, and is. We also can’t achieve anything without the inspiration, the guidance, the call from our beloved community. The trick is that I don’t believe we have only one purpose alone in life. For now, Camila is the strong drive and director of my current purpose. ‘Tis the season for motherhood.

2. Choco (aka Choquis-choquis), our new family member. Choco is our Labradoodle puppy who loves us very dearly and whom I have to let out in the mornings to make sure she does her business outside, not inside. Granted, Camila and I have never been void of smiles and giggles. Even when life has been difficult, we manage to pull out a smile. Though now that Choquis-choquis has invaded our home, we seem to smile more, and giggle more, and walk more, and be more alert and clean more. We go to bed a bit more tired, but with far more kisses, and joys.

3. Work. It’s not only what I do to make money, but what I do with my hands to produce something that has meaning. It’s everything that allows us to live well and hopefully helps others to live well as well. Some work is more enjoyable than others, but such is life, and I must get up every morning and work it!

4. My community. Nothing I have or have accomplished has been my doing alone. My community is a wealth of souls that have embraced me with love and strength. My community has not always been charming or easy for me to understand, but it is where I stand, where I sleep, where I dream, where I hope, where I fight, where I love, where I cry, where I breathe and where I grow. It is both home and a strange land. And I love it. It is so full of knowns and unknowns and full of humanity.

5. Because life is a gift. I wake up in the morning because the Great Spirit breathed life in me once again and the Great Spirit breathed life in my child and in you. I get up in the morning because I want to see the sun rise once again; to experience a miracle once again.

Life is a gift, and to me, taking it for granted is inconceivably rude. I wake up because I was given the gift of life, and I must get up to greet the adventure that the Great Spirit has offered me. It is a gift I won’t refuse because it fills me and allows me to be a mother, to work, to belong, to give and receive, to hope, to dream and to love.

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