A peep into the “Friday email”
This blog grew out of something we called “the Friday Email”, a note I sent every Friday to our Sunday school class. Over the years it expanded beyond that and eventually grew into the blog you read here.
I haven’t sent a Friday Email for several weeks and sometimes they just get a copy of what you all are getting on the Journey. But today we are flipping it around and YOU are getting a copy of my letter to them.
Dear friends,
It has been a few weeks since I sent a “Friday email” and I do apologize. I put a lot of energy into showing up five mornings a week for the blog, and that has been something I gave myself permission to skip on busier days and weeks this summer.
When I started this, I never missed because I was afraid if I stopped for a day I would not go back. I do better if I am diligent to stick to the schedule. Homework passes were not my friend because any stop in momentum usually means a stall at best and a reversal at worse for me.
But this summer I needed breathing space. I decided that it was okay if I didn’t have anything to say for a day or two, or if we had only so much time I wasn’t trying to cram in typing a note.
So I had to laugh when I read an inspirational writing about how we have a tendency to turn up the crank on busy-ness as the summer winds into autumn. The school and sports calendar can dictate our days as we embrace cooler temperatures and roll into the end of year Holiday extravaganza.
The writer suggested that we give ourselves permission to take pauses, rests, deep breaths and not rush into a barrage of activities.
So I have been pondering this.
We are given the same amount of hours in the day, every day and most of the time I have listed far too many things than I have hours or power to accomplish. I end up feeling rushed and frustrated and more focused on what didn’t get done than what did get done.
Some things are given and have to be done or attended. Plugging those in first and then adding in what can be conceivably done is probably the wise route to take.
Our son mentioned on his recent visit as we were discussing the need for adequate water intake and the stretching that our genetic makeup needs to avoid back pains, that if we think we are too busy in a day to stop and drink a glass of water or strengthen the muscles that keep us upright and strong then we are too busy.
It is a daily prioritizing of what really needs to be done and making sure to step off of that gerbil wheel we have been running on and remind ourselves we are flesh and blood. Only human.
One of the exercises I learned at a writing clinic was to sit still for a minute and note with paper and pen or just in your head:
Five things you can see
Four things you can feel
Three things you can hear
Two things you can smell
One thing you can taste
It centers a person in the present instead of rambling around in your head and trying to sort out and come to terms with the past while making plans for and orchestrating the future.
We really only have the minutes that we are living in right now.
I encourage you to take some time today to just stop, breathe, drink some water, rest your eyes a bit and move again when refreshed. Try the activity above and perhaps just be thankful for each of the things you name.
Blessings and I hope you have a wonderful weekend <3