I made a mistake this week by scheduling three events to happen at the same day and time. Of course, I couldn’t be on a phone call, have a contractor over to the house, and get a haircut all on Tuesday morning at 11:00. I am constantly in my phone calendar, adding events or moving tasks around. Juggling my schedule of household tasks and creative classes, on top of my daughter’s end-of-school and activity calendar and my husband’s travel schedule is just chaotic. It’s too much!
It’s time for me to slow down and let some things go. I have a five-year-old daughter and I’ve noticed that rather than simply sitting with her, talking with her, or watching her play and grow, I am preoccupied with tasks. She is so often asking me to pay attention, to look up from washing the dishes, putting in the laundry, or from gardening, straightening, litter box cleaning, dinner prep, organizing, vacuuming, and on and on. There are a world of tasks that could take my attention away from her (and they do have to get done at some point). I’m sure I do look up and notice, but my days truly are filled with too much. I enjoy writing, photography, painting, or catching up on e-courses while she’s at school, but that leaves the time that she’s home to catch up on housework, cooking, or grocery shopping.
There’s a happy medium in there, I know. I’m just all of a sudden aware of how tired I am and how I am letting the joy that she brings forth slip through my fingers. I am doing too much… getting too many emails, taking too many classes, saying yes to too many people. How much more of a support and encouragement could I be to her if I were more present with her? And instead of looking through the eyes of annoyance, what if I saw her as the marvel of creation that she is? I can do better at that if my mind is clear of these other distractions. Here we go…
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