YOUR :: Five-Minute Friday
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YOUR
What can you call your own these days?
I know many of you have found your schedules and personal space trampled by the unexpected changes of this pandemic. Our house was a bit fuller than usual throughout the past 6 months as well, but we're in the season of life where, slowly but surely, the capacity of our home has shrunk to just Brian and me. It's a day I dreamed about for years but then grieved at the way it felt when each of our children moved out. I've learned what lots of folks tried to tell me is true. The doorway to an empty nest is constantly revolving.
I'm terrible at transitions. I like to hunker down in one rhythm and live there until I decide to make the shift. That's not how the world works, of course, and definitely not how the world works for parents of younger children. Your time is almost never your own. And while the spaciousness of what feels like my own has expanded, I'm still figuring out how to move gracefully between what I consider my own and what I give away.
Nothing much has changed actually. The proper equation is much the same. What I receive and what I offer are all part of the same gift.
Recently I was chatting with a friend. A mother of adults a few years ahead of my own. We were comparing notes on the tension between longing to be physically present with our children and also figuring out how to get them to leave when that longing had been filled.
I'm the first in line to tell you that whether you're a parent, a spouse, a sibling, or a friend, knowing what parts of ourselves to call our own is what healthy, whole people learn how to do. And then we learn how to hold it lightly, with humor (like my friend trying to describe how it felt when her adult children kept extending their visit!), and with love for others and ourselves.
When you know what to call your own, you also know what you have to give away. All of it coming down like lights from the Father.
Peace of Christ to you as you navigate the unrelenting tensions of this season.
Tamara
p.s., That photo above is from 1998, and it's one of the better photos I own from one of the seasons when I didn't feel like I could call anything my own. (But, man, it was worth it.)
Welcome back to the new weekly feature, Five-Minute Friday. For the remaining weeks of Ordinary Time, I'll be sharing a five-minute written reflection on one word I've been pondering. (I'm literally setting a stopwatch for five minutes so that I can just write already!)
Thanks for being a listening community and a safe place to offer stories from my everyday experiences and epiphanies. I'm grateful for your companionship.
I'd love to hear your reflections from this week. Feel free to respond to the word "COULD" or just share your own experiences and epiphanies from the week.
*This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up! You can read all the Five-Minute Friday posts here.