…and forest paths this morning!
A few weeks ago I felt I just might obliterate under the pressure.
You can relate??
And just in the nick of time my knight-in-shining armor rescued me.
He had invited me to join him for a trip he needed to take for an educational conference. It just happened to land around our anniversary so he felt we should go early, celebrate our anni, visit some friends, and give me a break while he attended the conference.
I wish you all knights-in-shining armor like that! Or even better BE that to someone else!!
Grandma came so willingly, joyfully, kindly, supportively, cheerfully, even exuberantly came to care for our little ones while we would be away.
And then there is my Mom. I wish you all mothers, grandmothers, like her!! Or yes, even better, BE one! (The dream of my life to follow in her service-oriented footsteps!)
She came, and not just came, but so willingly, joyfully, kindly, supportively, cheerfully, even exuberantly came to care for our little ones while we would be away. (we still have 7 children between the ages of 1 – 15 still in the nest!) She came as a great blessing and let us go on this trip together.
The time away together was just sooo restorative and rejuvenating, allowed us time to catch up and time to ponder and plan ahead.
I pondered a LOT about how to NOT be overwhelmed ANY MORE! 🙂 I wrote out my priorities (too many to fit in a day), and then thought about all of them, prayed about them and then assigned times for each of them (some just couldn’t fit in), and talked to my husband about them. He’s always really awesome when it comes to this kind of thing. He has a way of cutting through the thick of it to find the thin amount of things that TRULY MATTER. He whittled my whole big list into 4 things to concentrate on and make happen every day in the next four months – four things I thought we already had going for us. Family prayer, Family scripture study, Family Home Evening, and Family dinner. As my friend JoAnn often says, “Be brilliant in the basics!” The great thing about this focus is that whatever else I add on to that including cleaning and washing clothes is a bonus, right?!!
The test was coming home—I haven’t felt overwhelmed yet!! Since Mom had all the laundry done and the house clean and the children super happy, she gave me a GREAT start and the real test will be to see how I’m doing in a couple of weeks ;).
And so my new, unoverwhelmed me, got up for the second morning in a row to read scriptures, take time to pray and exercise. (Just worked out—the babies slept later!)
Wow!!! What an all out WONDERFUL, totally NOT overwhelmed morning!! 🙂
And I wish with all my heart I could share it with you! The sunlight spilling into my room was too delicious to leave so I simply started there, some sit-ups, stretches. As I gazed out the window doing side-bends it beckoned me and I couldn’t even hold myself back. I let my brother and his wife know I was out for a walk while the babies slept on. And here’s just the littlest glimpse of an all-out perfect, perfect in every way walk this morning, from sunlight filtering through ferns that brushed the path I walked to the fragrance of forest pine and leaves that filled up my senses to the gorgeous wonder of life in process around me, new shoots of trailing pine and hemlock to moss covering old stumps and the moist, quiet parts of the path, Missy-doggin and Mo just as joyful and faithful as could be following me while racing around to check out the forest and play in the stream beside the trail. I do not think in all the world there could be a forest more beautiful than this one this morning—maybe not even any place.
And so I want to share that sunlight with you!!!
Just remember when things are tough, so hard to handle, and you feel you can’t handle a minute more, that the Lord will lead you to still waters and restore your soul! (Psalms 23)
Much Love and Hope,
CaMarie
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