A long time ago in a land…well, the same land I’m living on now, I had a couple of different blogs. This was before Journey with Jill and I wrote mainly about my family and life and whatever was on my mind at the moment.
Today thanks to Facebook’s neat feature where it shows what you posted on this day in the past, I happened upon a blog post I wrote 5 years ago today.
Life Then
My life looked much different then. I worked full-time and had a 5-year-old preschooler and 1-year-old baby girl. I taught weekly at church and attended a second class on Sunday nights, plus other church commitments. In hindsight, I had little breathing room.
The post I wrote centers on three days of vacation time I took and what I learned in those days of rest in such a busy season.
Life Today
Five years later, my life contains more breathing room. I no longer work full-time. My children are older and I can cook without a toddler on my hip. And since my kids are in school, I have space to delve into my personal pursuits.
Yet I wouldn’t classify these last couple of weeks as restful. Even with more margin space in my life, I’ve found myself living in the frantic pace I knew all too well five years earlier. My newest ventures of launching The Beginner’s Garden Podcast and creating videos for my Journey through Acts Facebook Membership Group (which starts Monday!) easily take up several hours each week. This is in addition to my commitments to home and existing day-to-day duties of running a blog and online business.
Forced to Rest
But today I write from my couch, with a tall Yeti of ice water and box of tissues within arm’s reach. The cold that only gave Alyssa an annoying cough for a few days has knocked my husband and me down. We’ve spent all day lying on the couch, passing the tissues between us. Not exactly what we would have planned with a free day to ourselves.
As I sit in the silence, the wind chimes taunting me with the melodic music of a warm south breeze, I am reminded of my need for rest — for white space, breathing room, time to think and meditate and pray and dream.
Need for Rest Doesn’t Always Correlate with Busyness
C
omparing my life now to my life five years ago and even my live fifteen years ago when I burned the candle at both ends as a college student, I realize our need for rest doesn’t always depend on how busy we are.
Sometimes we need to slow down no matter what life stage we are in. And what I’m learning now is that rest isn’t always physical. We need mental, emotional, and spiritual rest as well.
We can just sit and peel an orange and let our mind wander, bring our concerns to our Father.
What are some practical ways we can make space for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual rest?