On stopping to let the lessons sink in. š§
Plus: How a spoon rest shifted my perspective. Yup.
Iāve only ever truly been lost one time, and it was when I was about eight years old, maybe younger. We were in Gimli, Manitoba, at our Ward family cottage. The cottage is about 500 metres from the water. There isnāt a direct line to to the beach. Getting there involves a short walk or bike ride on a criss-cross of streets lined with deciduous forest and yet more cottages.
One day, I left the beach on a bike, all alone, confident I could find my way back to the cottage. It all started off just fine. But the streets looked the same to me and somewhere on my route I took a wrong turn. Suddenly, I was totally lost. With my little heart pounding, I pedalled faster and kept turning at random. š
I wasnāt lost for long but it felt like an eternity. Finally, I recognized a sign on the road and, almost by intuition, found my bearings. Instead of going to the cottage, I returned to the beach and cuddled with my mom. I had been so frightened.
What I perhaps should have done was stopped to take in my surroundings. I might have found my way more quickly. When I kept going, I felt even more lost.
Beyond this being a sad story of little Meghan getting lost, these days itās working for me as a metaphor. The past year has been a spectacular period of self-development and awareness. Iāve done a great deal of reading, thinking, listening, journalling and growing. Iāve faced new challenges (havenāt we allā¦) and in the face of those, Iāve grown in my resilience to meet them. Iāve had difficult conversations, Iāve turned myself inside-out.
I have absorbed new perspectives to the point where I now need to stop to let them sink in. I need to give myself time to integrate the things that I want in my life. Otherwise, I feel like Iām madly pedalling through a criss-cross of ideas without appreciating any of them fully, nor applying them. So often I have aha moments ā ideas that will bring me freedom ā but then quickly get distracted. Iām a feeling lost and overwhelmed at all the self-awareness and care I want to incorporate but donāt have time for.
During the pandemic, Iāve had a pause from my normal life and it has given me a chance to think about whatās important to me. I am grateful for that. Now my goal is to sift through the new learnings before we hit play again. Because I want to hit the ground RUNNING. š
How about you? Is any of this resonating with you today?
Photo: Pixabay on Pexels.
Whatās caught my attention latelyā¦ āØ
This article on CBC titled Weāre All Making Parenting Harder Than It Really Needs to Be. The author looks to other cultures and how the parent-child relationship plays out in different contexts. Iām working on more unscheduled time and letting kids tap into their creativity to entertain themselves, without intervention.
š Another random thoughtā¦ i.e. my ālesson from a spoon rest.ā (This might sound totally ridiculous.š) Iāve been working on absorbing some of Byron Katieās process after reading her book, Loving What Is. Her four questions help us understand that itās not necessarily the problem that bothers us, itās the way we feel about it. It can be a bit of a mind-bender sometimes, and though her process has drawn some criticism, it makes sense to me in many of my contexts.
So, I got up one morning and saw that the spoon rest on the counter was full of dried coffee from a spoon that had been resting there. For some reason, I felt annoyed that my husband had left āyet anotherā pool of coffee on the spoon rest ā ugh, so messy! It really bothered me (granted, weāve been under an unusual amount of stress lately). But upon asking Katieās questions, I laughed at myself when I made the realization: Isnāt that what a spoon rest is for??? So that the coffee doesnāt end up on the counter?
It made me realize how silly we are in our thinking sometimes, that the little things that get to us really shouldnāt. Itās entirely liberating when we can let goā¦
My thoughts, elsewhereā¦
Find the post directly here.
Check these out tooā¦ š
The Wonders That I Find - My childrenās book is now available! šæ Got the book? Please leave a review on Amazon.
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