When another soul makes the effort to speak words to you, do you make eye contact, do you attempt to connect, or are you to busy with “You”? Tough question, I know! I am not immune to selfishness, to having more on my mind about my things than the hearts of others. This is just a thought, but perhaps we should look up! Look up from ourselves, look up from our cell phones, look up from our lives, successes, failures, SELF!
I am daring to be different, not perfect, just different! I will go down that narrow path, and choose to look up! I need to stop looking at me, or I will miss the ones who need me to look into their eyes, to connect…
I have lived in many different styles of residence throughout my life, including what I refer to as houses with wheels. I have mentioned in the past that I had issues with these, one of which was the utter freedom with which creepy crawlies could infiltrate my domicile. Thought of a funny example the other day, cause remember, I am currently living in a 32-foot RV. Call it a funny way for bringing back memories, but I was watching a livestream of my favorite gaming community, Neebs Gaming, and everyone in live chat started laughing about encountering spiders in the worst places. From there, my mind went spinning backward to approximately 10 years ago…
I remember it being summertime, due to the fact that the heat was the cause for all our doors and windows being ajar. My middle daughter and I had been out running errands, and I was the first to race to the bathroom! I lived with a teenager, so I mean race! I thought I had scored a big win as I sat down to do ma thang, but looking to the side for the toilet paper, I changed perspectives really quick! Resting in comfort, directly upon my needed paper, was the biggest Wolf spider I had met, and there had been many (for another story). I am not even going to attempt describing the absolute animalistic form I took while extracting myself from close proximity to the little demon. But I did make it to the bathroom door, just as my daughter arrived to investigate. Later she told me it sounded like the toilet had fallen through the floor (another story for later).
I came up with the brilliant idea for dispatching the offending predator. We were going to hit it with my running shoe from the doorway, that way there would be no one close enough to be eaten. It sounded like a plan for heroic success and my daughter fully supported me, as I was the one with the shoe, and she was safely behind me. The best way for me to explain it is to go play by play here…
I flung that running shoe with the expertise of a pro ball player, aiming directly for the roll of toilet paper, where the ravenous creature was planning our demise
Upon contact, both the running shoe… and the spider… came flying in slow motion back at us
We both screamed, tripped over each other, ran into the bathroom door, slamming ourselves into the same room with a man-eating demon intent on consuming us both…
Don’t be scared, it’s ok! We got out!
Needless to say, my husband came home to find a broken bathroom door, a child busy texting our near-death experience to her friends, and a wife sporting a small doorjamb impression on her cheek, with a tale to tell…
Believe it or not, this flower is actually a good three feet above my head! I would not have even noticed it, had I not paused for a moment to rest my aching back. I am not sure that I want to go as far as to say that I am glad I injured my back. But I can certainly appreciate the lessons gained from my recovery process. One of those lessons is that I need to slow down!
I learned to slow down both physically, as well as mentally. In the physical realm, too much of a good thing (walking) is never healthy without taking the time to make sure you are capable of pacing yourself. I am learning to slow my walking down, and also to take days off for a refuel. Selecting regular days to rest is something I have to force myself to do. Mentally, I think it is also very necessary to do the same thing…
Take a day off!?!
While realizing that it can be difficult, it’s so very necessary that we take a mental day off, once in a while! You know, shut the brain door… close the shutters to our internal house windows.
I hope you weren’t’ expecting me to expound on the mental day off, as there are too many self-help resources that have already saturated the market on this subject. Actually, I am not even going to spout anything useful in the physical activity department. I just like to “walk” you into an insight I’ve gained, rather than just throw it at you like a water balloon.
Beauty and goodness are all around us! Each and every day, the sun rises to reveal these things. It carries on toward darkness, til it’s replaced by the rising of the moon. Over and over, again and again, this happens. We’re given so many opportunities to see and experience all that God’s created just for our pleasure and enjoyment.
My insight, if you have not already figured it out, is this: Slow down, and take the time to LOOK UP!
One would imagine that a writer would have a list longer than ones arm, readily available to regail you with insightful pearls of wisdom. Ya….No! Don’t get me wrong, I am a writer and I have read enough books to fill a small library. And trust me, I have many things I could pull from them to impress.
What I will do, is share my three favorite books with a quick why attatched. No fancy bells or whistles...
Hinds Feet on High Places by Hanna Hannard – It brought home to me who God was, to me, at a very delicate time in my life.
The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis – For me, this book was almost a preparatory step towards my salvation.
The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman – This book not only opened my eyes in how to love my girls, it has shaped how I try to fulfill love in others, children and adult alike. For me, this book was a life changer!
Sooooo, I homeschooled my children for a number of years! There, I said it! I get a mixture of reactions from folks, when I mention this fact. It ranges from an encouraging smile to a distrustful, and often judgemental frown. I am, however, very proud of what I accomplished with my kids! My past is filled with so many fun adventures. There are memories of camping for weeks at a time, trips to endless zooz and parks of this sort or that, and many different arts and educational groups. If nothing else, at least I know that my kids were never bored! As I write about my perspective on this subject, I also realize that my kids may not have entertained the same pleasant recollections as I did.
The other morning, while enjoying my morning coffee and music, I was pondering this different viewpoint. I can tell you for certain that I hated at least 3 different hairstyles my mom made me wear! I also have a plethora of stories recalling my perceived trauma at the clothes I was forced to wear, and to some of the most embarrassing moments I had to be a part of (western pictures with my parents) …it was aweful!
With fresh memories in my head from my own childhood, I perused the memory storybooks I keep of my homeschooling adventures. I was able to revisit some events that I realize my kids probably cringe at, each time they remembered. There were a good number of memories, however, that restore my faith in believing I did right by my girls. Here is one in particular that I thought you might find humorous…
It had been a pretty nice morning so far. With the classroom workbook session finished, I sat in my office with a cup of coffee, having sent the little ones outside to play in the yard. I finished the article I had been reading, and set it down next to my now empty coffee cup. It dawned on me that I had been reading for nearly 20 minutes without interruption…not normal!!! Just as I reached for the front door handle, my oldest was opening it and coming inside. The look on her face was that of guilt, fear, and anger all rolled into one!
Apparently, her sisters had hopped on their bicycles and gone for a bit of a ride. She wanted it to be very clear that she had tried valiantly to block their escape, but was overwhelmed by the treachery, and she had decided to come get me! With that information I grabbed my slippers…yes, I know, wrong shoe choice! Don’t blame me, there was no time…my little hooligans were on the loose…on wheels!!!
I headed down the block at a soft trot…you would think that I would be sprinting, as these were my tiny little vulnerable babies. Why did I not do said sprinting, you may be asking? First of all…SLIPPERS! Besides, I could already hear them singing from 3 blocks away! The hilarious reason I could hear them from such a distance, was due to the amphitheater style baseball field that rested just below our local elementary school! And NO, it was not recess time! The whole of my neighborhood had to know exactly whose little escaped convicts these two were! As I rounded the corner leading into the above-mentioned park area, they were belting out their own version of some childhood song. It was being broadcast loudly across the park by my little Tina Turners. The speed at which their little bikes were racing from the top of the hill all the way down to the bottom was impressive! So was the speed at which their little hind ends raced home to get there before I did!
In honesty, I think my oldest daughters’ lecture and judgement had a bigger impact on them than mine, lol! And lets face it people, my kids are just as wild as I am! Perhaps, more so…
Journey With Me! 