Calendar Craze

  This morning it took me 6 tries before I was able to communicate my thoughts in an email (sorry about that!).  When I look around the house, I see endless tasks which need tending to: toys to weed out, floors to wash, clutter to purge; and don’t even mention the garden!  School starts in two weeks and I’ve barely even thought about purchasing school supplies.  After a fairly schedule-less summer, I now find my dance card filling up with 2 PTAs, church volunteering, and doctor appointments; classes and committees are picking up for my wonderful husband; and school, homework, and extracurricular activities aplenty await my kids.  Even with allowing the older kids just one extracurricular each, our calendar still finds its way to overflowing.

  And what about exercise?  Where does that come in?  Where do I find the energy to exercise at 5:30AM when our 3-year-old has recently become a social butterfly in the wee hours of the morning?  If I’m just getting back to sleep when I’d normally be getting up to go to the gym, where to I squeeze in treadmill time?

  Spiritual renewal and growth?  I’m getting pretty tired of my prayers sounding like shopping lists of things I need help with.  “Where do you keep the financial security?  Do you carry patience?  I’m running low on inspiration, I’ll take two.”  I start out with thanks for the good things I have – even those I may not recognize as blessings – but I end up praying for this, that, or the other, and then worrying about this, that, and the other!  I wistfully remember retreats I’ve attended in the past: candles, running water, perhaps making a mandala.   

  This blog helps.  Forcing myself to write forces me to examine what’s going on in my life.  And what I find is that I need to take some deep breaths and not try to make it all happen at once.  I need to show my family how much I love them and that I appreciate the joy they bring into my life.  I need to slow down, light a candle, play some soft music, and teach my kidlets how to find peace even in a whirlwind.  When I find my way to that calm, I’ll restore my temporarily off-kilter world.

  Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.  – Prayer of St. Francis

  I can already feel joy stirring again beneath the earth of life.  It just needs some quiet, water, and light.

~Karin