If you live in or around Greenville, you probably enjoyed the same WONDERFUL weekend weather that I did. It was fabulous. I spent almost the entire day outside yesterday. I dug up and split my hostas, planted marigolds around my light post, and potted about a dozen pots with pretty spring flowers including violas, petunias, snapdragons, impatients, begonias, and pansies to place on my porch. It was perfect. Even after I showered (because believe me I needed it), I sat on my porch swing for a couple of hours reading last month’s Runner’s World and soaking up the weather. I have needed a day like that. There is something therapeutic about digging in the dirt; something soul-refreshing about an afternoon on the porch swing. The vitamin D being soaked up by my body and the pinkness on my arms and legs from the sun just fills me with joy.
I couldn’t have asked for a better gift from the Lord this weekend.
Then Monday comes, and along with Monday comes the realization that the next two weeks are jam-packed full of things that have to be done and I am on my own to do most of it because of Mike’s schedule. Since I haven’t yet figured out that cloning myself thing, there are some things that will likely have to get skipped. Then there are the five days in the middle that I am out of the state for a conference and accomplishing good things, but not the around home and work stuff that is on my list. Follow that up with the realization that it’s the time of year that all that extra stuff begins: ball practices, cheerleading, end-of-school-year events, and summer nipping on the heels of the school year ending. It’s all enough to make a busy woman scream.
I have almost screamed a couple of times today.
I get all panicky when the calendar starts to fill back up (or fill up differently than it has been) because I have to re-program my brain to remember new things and schedules. I have to think through things like drop-off, pick-up, meals, and get creative with family time again. I feel bad when one of my kids has to miss something because the other one or I have a commitment that has to come first and Mike is working and there’s not enough of me to go around.
In light of the fact that I have been struggling with being in the moment versus living in the future, I really need to make sure I am not just trying to get through the day and checking the items off of the to-do list, but that I am trying to be present in every event of the day, which is hard when my head is constantly running down the schedule of the evening to make sure we don’t miss anything.
So today, tomorrow and every day to come, I will simply take a deep breath, look at the calendar, pray over the day, and trust that I will not only get through the crazy that comes with spring, but that I will find hidden gems of peace, joy, and hope amidst the busyness of life and that I will be able to enjoy every thing as it comes.