Restfulness

I run a fairly organized house. To some it’s overly organized, to others its under organized, and to some it’s a normal amount of organized. To me it’s somewhere under what I’d like, but far enough that I usually feel like there is always more to do. I think this is fairly normal – that our normal is never quite enough.



This past week I have been tired. Tired. Actually these past few weeks I’ve felt this way. And as the weeks progressed strangely enough my family still needed to be fed, the laundry still piled up (dirty, in need of a wash, and clean, in need of folding), and the list of things I want/need(?) to do around the house kept growing. My lovely dishwashers (Husband and homestay student) are great at washing and drying the dishes, and have great intention regarding putting the dishes away, but for some reason they both put them in the strangest places. Therefore my organized shelves only remain organized so long as I daily go through them to find stray dishes and put them all away. Lately this has fallen by the way side.


I had breast reduction surgery 5 years ago this march. Best decision ever, but that’s a story for a different and possibly more private time. I started feeling pretty lousy physically as well this week, on top of the tiredness. Then one side of my chest started to ache and turn red. Obviously this was quite alarming. Turns out that I had caught an infection that is common to women either breast feeding (not me!) or who have had breast reduction surgery (me!). That was a relief as I was worried it might be something worse. Anyways I now have medicine and the pain is starting to abate.


The lesson in all this, though, was that I felt like God had been trying to get my attention about slowing down for some time. I even wrote a blog post about it a little while ago. I couldn’t figure out how to do that. It seems impossible. Then this happened and it really affected my body – I was exhausted, sore and in pain. I could no longer ignore God’s promptings for rest. Thursday I babysat my nephews. The original plan was to work on a few projects after they went to sleep. This would have been a good thing to do. There is no question of that. BUT sometimes good things aren’t the right thing. So when I put the boys down, I put myself down on the couch and slept until Jenna and Colin returned home at 10:30. I got 2 hours and it was lovely. I went to bed and was asleep by 11am, sleeping until 7am. Friday morning, despite the pain, I was feeling much better. We had a long, non-negotiable night ahead of us. BUT I knew that Saturday I could put aside my good plans and chose the better plan of sleeping and resting.


Saturday should have been filled with laundry, cupboard reorganization, grocery shopping and general tidying. Instead I slept until 11am, got up, made “lunch” and read a book, then at 1 I went back to sleep until 3pm. It was so wonderfully wasteful.


Sunday I went grocery shopping and then joined my family for the BC Alzheimer Societies Walk for Memories in support of my parents who were the honoree’s for the walk this year. This was a non-negotiable, and a great time. BUT we did chose (for the first time in the past year) to skip church. We chose to rest (and work on the hubby’s Teaching School Applications). We went to bed by 10pm having completed that task, and having rested. It was again a win.


I start this week with a kitchen full of dirty dishes, clean clothes piled on my bed, clean towels thrown into a corner on the floor, shelving/cupboards in disarray and two bags of non-perishable groceries sitting on my kitchen floor needing to be put away.

I also start this week having spent quality time with my husband; feeling very connected to him and very much in love.

I start this week having spent time with God, growing in intimacy and love with him; knowing that he loves me even when I put everything aside and sleep.

I start this week ready for a new week, ready to chose the right things and ready to see what comes my way.

I call this a WIN.