I try to be intentional with our schedules and am incredibly protective of unscheduled family time at home. Even still, all of the things that make a life – laundry, doctor appointments, field trips, birthday parties, conference calls, backpacks to empty and papers to sort, a full calendar with too few days lacking commitments- have been abundant here lately.
I have been craving slow and simple. I’ve found myself yearning for unhurried days at home without piling in and out of the car, constantly running.
May is always a bit of a whirlwind around here. We have had a sweet season of celebrating little loves. First, Charlotte turned two and then my boys turned six. SIX. I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around the pace at which my babies are growing. I think this has only fueled my desire to slow down our daily pace.
This morning, we had a slow start with nowhere to be. The rain softly falling forced us to pause from the endless tasks demanding attention around the farm. It was exactly what we needed without our even realizing it. After the rain cleared, we took a long walk through the blueberry fields. We fed the chickens and collected eggs. We splashed in puddles and threw rocks into the pond. We scooped up and devoured barely-ripe, tart blackberries.
I realized as I walked alongside my favorite people in the whole wide world that sometimes we really, really need to be unproductive and unhurried. The earth will continue to spin if we step away from the noise.
Our souls yearn for stillness.
Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see. We walk in our sleep and teach our muscles to work without thinking and I dare you to walk where you have not yet walked and I dare you to notice. Don’t try to get anything out of it, because you won’t. Don’t try to make use of it, because you can’t. And that’s the point. Just walk, see, sit down if you like. And be. Just be, whatever you are with whatever you have, and realise that that is enough to be happy.
There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.”
― Charlotte Eriksson
Here’s to a weekend bursting with moments of stillness and contentment and freshly picked wildflowers!