noticing:: the weariness in my soul this Monday morning. Two weeks of on and off sickness moving through my family have taken their toll. I didn’t do self-care well this weekend and it shows.
listening to:: chopin variations. If there is anything true I know about myself, it is that music is a powerful prescription. It says what my heart cannot, and sings to it when I am weary. It helps me get back to center.
talking:: about new paths and plans. I haven’t discussed it much here, but my sometime job as a freelancer has steadily picked up over the last year, organically, by word of mouth. Coming to the realization that new spaces and margins need to be made to make room for this gift, and also to protect the margin of my family we’ve fought so hard to achieve.
thinking:: about friendship, loyalty, and fellowship. About my boys and the men they will become. What it means to live through the thick and thin, the pretty and the ugly, the beautiful and the brutal in community. The skills my children need to build life-long friendships of their own.
praying:: for my dear friend, Rebekah, who lost her mama last week. The hardest part of it all was being so far away and not being able to walk with her. For the repose of her mother’s soul. For a friend who received some brutal news last week; for healing.
cultivating:: seeds of ideas. My word for the year (nourish) has settled into place many of my plans for the year. I’m surprised at how easily I could see my path forward once I put it in the balance of whether it would nourish me and my family. Once it is put in those terms the dreck and the distraction become pretty apparent. I tend towards inspiration overwhelm, but I’ve got very specific ideas about what I’d like to do moving forward and I feel empowered and confident about what I’ve chosen. That’s a very new feeling.
creating:: more project life pages. Maybe some dresses for the girls this week. Definitely making sure there is space in each day to fill my cup in this area.
learning:: new things in the work arena. It’s been nice to stretch the brain cells new directions. It feels up the creativity cup in a different way.
encouraging:: the children in their projects and pursuits. Josiah and I are faithfully making our way through the beginning alphabet and learning our numbers. Isaiah has shifted his math work, and he’s very excited about the change. The older boys are working hard through their Webeleo projects with the additional help of their Grandpa Tom- I hear a pine derby is coming up soon.
cleaning:: my way through the house. We keep a pretty tight rein on clutter and mess in our house simply due to space constraints, but it never fails to amaze me how much gets squirreled away in our storage areas in a ‘just in case’ sort of way. Every year I get more and more ruthless about what is allowed to live with us. Simple, lovely, functional, or you’re outta here. I estimate if we were to move today we’d move with half of what we moved in with. It’s a good feeling.
cooking:: that which nourishes. I’ve watched everyone jump whole-heartedly into new diets and ways of eating as January has drawn on. I myself have been on a journey since July of last year towards healthier eating (and it’s showing in weight loss)…but gracious if all the Whole30 this, Paleo that, clean eating hullaballoo isn’t starting to feel a bit crazy to me. I so appreciate Katherine and Tonia, who are ever reminding me that simple and nourishing are all I need. The cooking skills I’ve learned this last year have made that pursuit much simpler- having the skills to make something from scratch (and quickly!) really change the paradigm.
grateful::
for life-long friends
for laughter and Monty Python
for the people in our lives that parent and mentor us
for the collective memory of community
knowing this truth::
The planet does not nee more ‘successful’ people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world more habitable and humane. And these needs have little to do with success as our culture has defined it.
-David Orr
sending:: all my love.
