Learning from a Slower World
This morning as I was walking the dogs and catching the sunrise from the top of the hill, my form of morning meditation, I noticed that the number of cars commuting in the morning is picking up. It made me reflect on the things I’ve learned in these times that I want to keep as a priority.
Relaxing the school mornings - our mornings are fairly smooth as I like getting up early and I have time to get a solid breakfast ready for my kids before I get them out of bed. Inevitably though the ten minutes before we have to leave the house the stress ramps up as shoes have magically disappeared, coats didn’t get put on and my workbag needs to get repacked. A morning win was a morning where I didn’t yell at some point. But the morning starts with this intense stress.
Now I work from home and start early, make breakfast when the kids get up and we talk and connect. I get back to work and shortly after as they’re ready they get into their schoolwork. Our days start better and feel better.
So looking at the things that cause this stressful start it comes down to having a hook with their seasonal coat on it and school shoes below that. Get into the habit of putting those shoes there right after school and we’re never looking for them.
And how simple is it for me to get my workbag ready before I make breakfast? These things never occurred to me since I didn’t realize the impact of something so simple on our day.
Look down more - we spent so much more time appreciating all the things in front of us. It really focused us to enjoy the journey on our excursions because there wasn’t really a destination. Someone once told me there are hikers that are whooshers and goshers. Whooshers are those that whoosh to the top and Goshers stop at every flower and say “oh my gosh”. Kids are natural Goshers and we really went with it. My pictures changed from big views to lots of plant life. Finding the balance in both will only double the enjoyment.
Say yes more - working from home with kids has created a situation where they see me all day but can’t really do much with me. As the day progresses they get more and more excited about the thought of mom interaction. In the afternoon I see them peeking into the room whenever it gets quiet (which means a meeting ended) to see if it might be the last meeting. The second it is, inevitably they ask if we can explore or go mountain biking. At first I needed time to adjust from work to home but I learned to just say YES! and get going. We all get out and have fun. Laundry piles up just like it did before but our memories are so much better.
Chasing sunsets - we started heading out on walks to catch sunsets. It started one night where we just happened to be out and we turned around the corner to see the colors. The kids got all excited, my phone was grabbed and they ran around taking pictures. Since then we’ve timed our walks around the sunset to say goodbye to the day. With school schedules being inevitable this can’t be a daily thing but the habit will be there enough that I can make certain night sunset nights.
There is a lot of difficult stuff happening in the world and lives have changed drastically. It can be hard to find the silver lining in times like this but take a moment to reflect on the smaller things that have gotten better and see how you can make some of these changes more permanent.
