Seasons, phases, transitions. They rule my life. One of my favorite parenting tips is to remember that for most ‘things,’ good or bad, “it’s just a phase.” I use that to remind myself to enjoy the good ones and not stress about the bad ones. Cashel is doing lots of mixing, pouring, and overall mess making… Just a phase. He most likely won’t be doing that at 10 or at 16. Camper is screaming one minute and snuggling the next saying “Lub you Momma.” Again, these (sweet) things won’t last forever, good or bad.
Then I see the lesson in it for me. This principle applies to my life too. As I sit down to read it would be easy to think of all the other things that in this phase of life that I have neglected to give my attention. My mind jets to the dishes in the sink, the beautiful cart of supplies I use to create art and colorful reminders of what God is doing in my life on the pages of my Bible and how I just haven’t gotten to it recently. I think of the blog post or email I’ve been meaning to write for a week. Or what about a friendship that is on the back burner because life has taken me another direction for a time. It’s not to say that illustrating my faith, spending time with that friend, writing or reading is not valuable or that one is more important then the other. Instead of trying to find the balance…
I settle on letting myself off the hook a little. If I can revel in the fun phase of words mispronounced, or brush off this rough potty training phase that is littered with accidents in his pants then I can remind myself that there are times for getting more reading done, there are months where I’ll write or create more. There are seasons where I’ve paid better attention to my physical health or the organization of my home. This is an healthy unbalanced life. I’m okay with that. I want to enjoy and be okay with these moments, these phases of unbalance. I want my life to have purpose, meaning, and joy. And to do that well I think I have to be unbalanced. I’m okay with that.