Life is not an emergency.
What a message that I need to hear, absorb and live! I am so grateful to Ann Voskamp for shouting that from the top of her blog.
But, even though life isn’t an emergency — time is my enemy. Every morning, I wake up and spend the rest of the day racing against the clock. We are locked in mortal combat, that clock and me.
It’s what has kept me from my personal blog — hoarding my small amount of free time, I’ve spent it all on my collaborative 365 project. And not that I begrudge that project one minute of time — it’s a beautiful concept that is developing into a lovely reality. But, I need a space of my own. Or, rather, I need to not neglect this, THIS space of my own.
There is also intention. As I race through the day, I feel so often like I’m only reacting to events. Only throwing water on fires, never putting them out, never really tending to the ones that could flare up only those that are already raging. And it leaves me raging. And I’m tired of raging. And tired of racing.
I intend to slow down. I intend to do things with forethought and planning. Like dinner. For Lent, I gave myself the discipline of cooking all of our dinners from scratch. (We’ve modified the original plans a little bit. Friday’s fish fry at the parish is okay as well as a lunch or dinner out on Sunday — after all Lenten disciplines never count for Sunday, right?)
But for this week, then, I am hoping to go a bit slower. Or at least, if I must rush, at least remember who I am serving and to do it with grace. And Grace.
I’m so with you Jessica! I feel the same way. I was just thinking that I’m going to take a look at my schedule for next month and actually write in some fun “me” time, otherwise I seem to get lost in the shuffle of day to days. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the dinners. I always love that “it doesn’t count for Sunday” rule too! Who came up with that one?! Lol
Thanks, Stacie! I’m glad for the Sunday break — it makes it easier to get through the week without chocolate if I know that I can have some with my tea on Sunday! ; ) They were geniuses whoever thought that up!
When the call was “rush,” I almost wrote about how much I hate to be rushed. In fact, Sundays tend to be the most stressful days of the week around here (kind of sad, don’t you think?), because we have to get to church in the morning. To ameliorate that problem, though, we’ve been trying to attend 4pm Mass on Saturdays.
I don’t want to give advice where none is requested, but I would like to share that homeschooling our kids is, without a doubt, the most liberating decision we have ever made (and we made it right around the time our first was born). At the top of my home education blog is a Seth Godin quote that I love: “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” I really feel like we’ve done that, simply by choosing not to conform our lives to a schedule created by the local school board.
Oh, and I’m glad that you’re enjoying our collaboration. I am, too!