Let Your Heart Wander

Happy Sunday! {Or whatever day you’re reading this; Maybe I should’ve just said Hello?}

Do you ever feel like you’re strictly doing only what you have to do, just to get by?

I’ve been in that mode for a few weeks now.  I’ve been having a hard time saying “no” to the things I’m not super passionate about, because I’ve had the mentality of “yeah, I can squeeze it in”  or “that sounds ‘kind of’ fun”.  Along with that, when I have said “no” people have been having a hard time hearing and accepting it. 

Ordinarily I am a reliable person.  I do all that I can at home, & still show up to put in 110% at whatever I’ve signed up to do. 

Now don’t get me wrong here.  I like that people can count on me.  The problem is, I’m also drowning in my have-to-do list (which is different than a typical 'to-do list').  I'm not kidding you- every square on my calendar is filled in, for as far as thee I can see! 

I’m not getting any time to just let my heart, mind, and even my feet wander.

So this weekend we were supposed to go to a family reunion 3 hours away.  I love my extended family and miss them something terrible, but I had just hit a breaking point and couldn’t do it.  I went to bed thinking we were going, but I woke up with a change of heart (and the girls and I had that silly lingering cough, so I sort of felt justified.  But really we need a family day more than anything, and I needed to not feel guilty about that).

 

 

I described it to my husband like this:  Point A is home.  I’ve been heading everywhere I’ve had to for a few weeks (really months, but the past 3 weeks have been BAD).  Those are straight lines.  I go do what I have to do, and I come back home. 

What my heart REALLY wants is to just wander.  I want the distance between my coordinates to look like pretty, swirly lines once in a while.

So that’s what we did Saturday.  We slept in until 8am and then Mr. Awesome and I cooked a great big breakfast together.  It had been SO long since we had cooked a meal together.  I had really missed it, even though I occasionally whined that he was in my way or spraying water all over the place while he rinsed the dishes (that I believe can go straight into the dishwasher without rinsing, but whatever).  We sat down as a family to eat and we actually took the time to listen to the kids tell stories, talk about conversations they had with their friends, and heard great big belly laughs from each of them at different times.  

 

We took care of several errands, delivered hand-me-down clothes to a friend, returned plumbing pieces to the hardware store, took a van load of things to our favorite 2^nd hand store to donate, and best of all we FINALLY delivered that wedding gift that had been sitting here for 3 months since we missed a wedding back in July.  Now these were “to-do” things, but we didn’t have to do them on anyone’s time but ours.  We didn’t have to show up at a certain time. which hasn’t happened for us in a very long time. 

After that, we just wandered.

When we were headed to look for a new blog planner at Staples (which I didn’t find- so any and all suggestions are welcome!) we decided to take a detour and take the family mini-golfing. 

MINI-GOLFING, People!  Do you know how fun that is?  It’s insanely fun.  Especially with a group of kids as fun as mine and a husband who is a great big goofball!

 Our mini-golf coupons were expired, but we took a chance and they let us use them anyway (Shout out and THANK YOU to North Iowa Golf).  The course was quiet, and we got to take our sweet time.  And believe me, with three kids, one of them being a two year old carrying her own club, we really did take.our.time. 

I left my phone in the van, which was a good thing; because when I got back I realized I would’ve had 7 interruptions while we were out enjoying family time.  They were all things that could wait, but if I had my phone on me, I would’ve felt obligated to respond back or take phone calls that didn’t have to happen right then.   

What I’m saying is:

1.      Are you giving a gentle “no” in areas that you just can’t passionately serve right now? 

2.      Are you taking time to let your heart, mind, and feet wander?

And when I say serve, I want you to know you can serve in absolutely any way, and this will look different for each of us.  Maybe you serve through babysitting for a friend, making meals, sitting on a committee, helping organize an event, etc. 

I personally cannot serve by babysitting your kids right now, but I can be of service by making a meal.  Maybe you’re the other way around right now.  That’s okay!

 

The Answer Key would look like this:  1. YES 2. YES.

If you can’t answer both questions with a firm YES, then I encourage you to take a look at this next week, and see what changes you can make so that you can serve passionately.