Sometimes you just need to eat raspberries slowly to wake up to the sanctity of the now. Ripe, juicy, sweet, tart, red raspberries.
I am reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Finally. I have been circling and circling around this book, avoiding it because it is a New York Times Bestselling Book. Sometimes bestsellers disappoint me. So I did not have the courage to pick it up.
But then, thankfulness seems to be the answer to all my questionings.
I am reading Ms. Voskamp’s book and I am blessed. I am learning to slow down.
I have been so busy this summer. Why? I don’t know.
This is a new experience for me. Summers have always meant really, really hot and slow days. Slow. Not this summer. Soccer camp, zoo outings, violin lessons, Safety City, swim lessons, summer reading programs, reading to the kids, starting a history curriculum, finishing up my second book, Alliance Française meetings, Maker Faire…
We did not even attend everything we wanted to. For the first time since I became a mother, I missed VBS. What?? That’s right. We had a conflict with another event we had signed up for before they announced the VBS dates.
I have yet to make it to the Heritage Center in Townsend where they have amazing workshops for children in the morning. I also would have liked to take them to the Museum of Art. No chance.
Why this busyness? Maybe because they are older and we find more programs suitable for them.
“…urgent means slow… the most urgent necessitates a slow and steady reverence,” writes Ann Voskamp. “Life at its fullest is this sensitive, detonating sphere, and it can be carried only in the hands of the unhurried and reverential – a bubble held in awe.”
And so I started turning people down when they asked me to teach another class (I already teach four) or when they asked me to show them real estate (I still have a license, but don’t use it much).
Because classes to teach will always be there and real estate will always be there, but my children are only small once. I plan on shedding some of my other responsibilities later this year, when my tenure comes to an end. I believe in being responsible and finishing up a job started.
But I want to live life slowly. More slowly than what we are doing now.
Are you in awe at ripe raspberries this morning? Are you taking it slowly?
