Ps. 119: 25
(I'm meditating each week on one section of Psalm 119 and including a selected verse at the top of each post. This verse, the first of the 'daleth' section, was appropriate to read each morning this week as I frequently felt 'in the dust.' Some weeks are like that.)
TUESDAY
Productivity. I crave it. Double-tasking, triple-tasking. I told a coworker today that I don't think I know how to do just one thing anymore. Though it sounds like an accomplishment - and maybe in my workplace it sometimes is - I actually grieve the loss of simplicity that doing just one thing brings. Yesterday we had a snow day. A day off. A rest. Or it should have been. I got a few little tasks done (mostly while H took his naps), but spent much of the day in internal monologues with myself about how I should be spending my one precious snow day and feeling disappointed in myself as the minutes ticked by. Becoming addicted to getting a lot done can cripple the ability to relax.
One of my goals for 2015 is to learn to do one thing at a time. And coupled with that, to embrace rest, rather than scrambling after achievements. So tonight, rather than cooking batches of baby food, doing laundry, or sweeping the floors (or all three at once), I took my laptop upstairs, snuggled in some blankets, and watched a movie. OK, I ate ice cream too. That was multi-tasking, but just barely.
THURSDAY
There are work days when you want to scream. When every little thing falls apart and every extra task gets dumped on top of your already-long morning list and it's all urgent. When it's January and the heat's not working and you're shivering. It's not fair, but it's your day and you can either swallow your anger, or you can bleed out your stress onto everybody else. When it's over at 12:00, you just want to come home and crash but there's a different list waiting at home, and really there's always another list waiting somewhere and it's never really over.
Tea and slippers and a blanket. A hymnal and a squirmy one-year-old.
It's not perfect. But it's a list to be grateful for.
FRIDAY
Inspired by this blog post, I bring you my first "Photo an Hour."
6:00am
7:00am
8:00am
9:00am
10:00am
11:00am
12:00pm
1:00pm
2:00pm
3:00pm
4:00pm
5:00pm
6:00pm
7:00pm
8:00pm
SUNDAY
I should have known the weekend would end like this. Wicked head cold. Cancelled plans because while my uncle and cousins from New York were on the way here for a late family "Christmas," the truck broke down. House a mess from construction work on the new bathroom. A rare attempt at a nap is interrupted by a crying baby.
I'm definitely "laid low in the dust." I need Tylenol Daytime Cold. I need a long hot shower and a bottomless cup of hot lemon tea. I need a decent night's sleep and a snow day tomorrow and maybe one the next day too. I need a burst of energy to scrub the filthy floor on my hands and knees. I need an awful lot of things.
What I need most when I'm in the dust and my soul is weary isn't any of those things. It's the things in Psalm 119. Strength according to His word. Meditation on His wonderful deeds. A heart set on His laws. It might not clear up my congestion or soothe the body aches or get my floors clean or put my baby back to sleep.
But it sets my heart free.
Grateful this week for:
Tylenol Cold
leftovers
dances with H
work routine
hugs from H
prayers from a friend
lemon-dill fish and homemade pilaf
static on the radio
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