Back to basics

  I have been working on slowing down despite the busyness around me, my pace, my mind, my hurried heart.  If it was up to me, we'd have 36 hour days, 2 extra hours to lie in bed and 10 more to get more done, have more experiences, achieve more goals.  It is a good thing it is not up to me, because I would run myself even more ragged than my current tendency.  I'm also learning to be thankful with what I have, and 16-18 waking hours is just what I need.

 

  As we were walking home from taking Hannah to school today, we stopped to watch some arborists cut down a tree.  We watched for a good 15 minutes and as much as the boys were soaking in the big trucks, chainsaw, and falling branches, I was soaking in the chance to stop and enjoy this wonderful moment.  No rushing home.  No racing to the next errand.  No endless list of chores to tackle.  Just making friends with the arborist and enjoying the little things in life.

 

"Hey Mom, you wanna take a video of them?"

Not really, I want a picture of your cute faces!

 

  After a relaxed morning of painting, playing board games with Ava crawling all over us, and hanging out we went outside to play.  We seriously never do this anymore!  Flashback to last year when we first moved down and we were ALWAYS outside riding bikes!

 

  We went back to basics...slow walks home, chatting with passersby, riding bikes in the circle, getting our knees dirty, and playing in the garden.  This is the stuff that this mom's dreams are made of.

 

  Every week ought to have one of these days.  Not much on the agenda besides eating, playing, and a meeting with a friend at the end of the day.  I have been digging deep and asking the spiritual power that is within me for help in slowing my hurried heart.  It's not that the busyness goes away, because that is not realistic, it's that my approach is completely transformed.  Thank the Lord, it's kind of working!

 

  I read a book last month that had a chapter on rushing and hurrying, that really hit home.  "Haste makes waste," and goodness I was not wasting time, because I am efficient and proud of it!  But I was wasting my energy and wasting those moments that I missed of being present with my children.    "Hurry always empties a soul," and I will let it empty me until I can no longer function.  Read:  going to bed at 7 pm one friday night and not waking again until 7 am.  I was really that tired.  And lastly, "On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur."  I long to grow on to mature things, patience being one of them!  Slow down, enjoy each moment, and the rewards will be great!

We are merely moving shadows,
    and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.

Psalm 39:6