Isn’t spring rain refreshing? This morning the garden is glistening with soft rain left from a light shower last night. Everything looks fresh and new again when the rain washes off the soil and dust of the day. It’s lush and inviting and helps me forget that it took time and work to get those post holes in the ground and the soil moved. Families are like that too, it takes time to get them rooted and a good bit of care to keep them close, especially when we are miles apart too often.
Sundays are like that in my life. During the week I am in many roles in many lives. Bride, Mom, Stepmom, Employer, Consultant, Writer, Chief Bottle Washer…you know this from your own life. Sundays (or whatever day we practice Sabbath…in our life, it has at times been a weekday or Saturday, it’s about the process of stopping and engaging rest, (not just the day of the week for us). Sundays are that day this season of the year for us.
We gather as a family most meals when we are not elsewhere, but Sundays we plan for a slowed-down, laid-back breakfast together. Like a well-cooked fried egg, you’ve got to turn down the heat of the week…slowly let it become done…We seek to learn and to connect, attending worship church to be with others like believers, or we are at our home church with other families in study, or we are studying as a family at home.
Brunch brings delight as does a good afternoon nap or reading. Our family is a work in progress, a blended family, we spent and spend many weekends delivering children for visitation or checking on older family members. Grown children’s parents, now it’s about intentional gathering. We’re working on those skills. Grown folks have lives of their own and in our case, live in other communities. Blended families face the multiplication of family in other spaces desiring to gather at the same time. We are fortunate, we are not a family of discord for the most part. Our marriage came long after divorce and was not intertwined in the “she left me for him” or “he left me for her” kind of stuff. Thankful. Blended family life is hard enough without extra.
The day is emptied of the tasks of the week for the most part. We walk the garden. We drink in the air outdoors. We unlock the gates of permission to just be. To enjoy nature, to relax. We stay in Sabbath mode until 6:00 pm when the routines of the evening prepare us for the workweek.
The go-go-go twenty-four-seven of this world can eclipse connecting our minds to our hearts. Screens of the internet have taken over personal connections without intention. We stop listening to our needs, we too often stop listening to each other. Sabbath allows us to remember we are not God, and that love is present in our lives when we make space for relationships….including the one with our Creator.
Today’s new Redbird Cottage courtyard garden is fresh today. The new dawning of this day and of life reminds me that we need the rain. We need the cleansing of a fresh storm, even those that disrupt us and get messy. We need to get the stuff off us long enough to take in the sun, to drink in life.
This has been a stormy season for our family, and yet, the storms have brought life to us in new ways. It is funny how that happens when priorities are forced to shift and we re-learn what is important.
Hope your morning is fresh and your day refreshing where ever you are.
Beautiful sentiment and journey of life. Thank you for sharing in thought, image and word…
Oh how personal Sabbath decisions have been a journey. We grew up with Sundays being the day Grandfather preached, Mom taught Sunday School in the same class 40+ years, and nothing was more sound than knowing a Sunday roast was on for lunch. Worship and God time was a source of legalistic evaluation, now we commune with God, at times through corporate worship, always through relationship, not fear of judgement if we don’t. What a difference to focus God’s love first, his provision second, and the joy of leaning into the Word. Big lessons, lots of journey to get to this place, but such a good place to commune with what God’s about..loving the people, and loving Him.