Hello fellow travelers on the journey! If you’ve stuck with me this far, first of all, THANK YOU! I appreciate you so much for finding some reason to keep reading. Today, I am feeling the need to “take a minute”- a favorite phrase of a sweet little girl I know… It is her way of articulating that she needs some time away to get her body, brain, and emotions under control when current circumstances are causing uncertainty in her four-year-old world. What great parenting to provide a child with the ability to identify “the turmoil within” and empower her with a way to manage it herself. When we were parenting our kids, oh so many years ago, I fear we may have too many times imposed a “time out” rather than encouraging a “time away.” Unknowingly, we may have created an environment of punishment rather than strategies to navigate the ups and downs of our human existence. (Sorry, kiddos!)
So, today I will follow the lead of my little friend and “take a minute.” If you’ve followed me this far, you know the word “minute” is figurative!
You see, today is one of the days when the uncertainties of life are “getting to me” a bit. Instead of giving in to self-doubt and fear, I choose to “take a minute” and try to get my body, brain, and emotions under control control as my current circumstances are causing uncertainty in my (considerably-more-than-four-year-old) world. One way I process is to break things down. In my mind, they show up like this:
Much to my engineer husband’s chagrin, I am a “Tables in Word” girl. He has tried to teach me to use Excel numerous times, but unless there are numerals which need to be calculated, I don’t get the point. Anyway, for my processing today, this little table has already helped me to untangle the spaghetti in my head and name what I’ve been feeling all morning. While doing this exercise, I drank two glasses of water. I will finish this post and shut my computer and open my bible. When Pat is finished mowing the lawn, I will ask him to go for a walk with me.
I realize most of what I am experiencing today is about Balance, something I am not always good at. Because I am a natural night owl, married to an early bird, staying up late is not always a good plan. Staying up until midnight last night working on our “unemployment” budget was definitely not a good plan. Getting up and drinking two cups of coffee when I had sworn off of caffeine over a month ago: well, that was just silly. A snack bar, 2 pieces of toast, a glass of orange juice, and a handful of chocolate chips for my morning sustenance? WHAT WAS I THINKING?
Time to take a minute. Time for some grace. Good thing God has plenty to go around and every once in awhile, I am able to find some to give myself.
Are you able to find grace today? Maybe it’s time to take a minute.