This week was all about stepping back.
Activity, endless work (because it’s hard to step away when you love it) and the numbers dragged me down.
Step back and choose to stop work.
Step back and sit in the backyard.
There are sweet peas growing, a flower that seemed to magically appear along my mother’s fence now grows in a fury along my own. Gardening is magic. Imagine what Creation was like…
Step back and delight in my husband’s talent.
My aunt and mom danced along to the cumbia but after one dance I sat back down, just wanting to listen and see him in this way in which I so rarely have an opportunity to.
Step back and delight in relationships
My mother and her two siblings came along to the gig, just to see him. They stood there listening, dancing and filming him, this man who has no blood relationship to him. For a small family that lives far apart, it was beautiful to behold how they have taken him into our family. He belongs.
Step back and receive the reminder of what matters
And when I was losing hope in waiting (because it takes so long to hear back about a manuscript!), a fellow Hope Writer encouraged me on, helped me sharpen my focus. I received a notebook in the mail sent to all Hope Writer members with the reminder from the manifesto: we write meaningful words without sacrificing our meaningful life / we build benches, not platforms…
Step back and consider what makes my soul sing
I don’t know what it means for my professional path, but my greatest joy in writing these days comes in sharing others’ stories and others’ work in meaningful and creative ways.
I celebrated the second album release with The Rykert Trio by sharing their story.
I reviewed The Mindful Catholic by creating a fictional conversation between a psychologist, St. Therese and a millennial entrepreneur. I mean, does it get any better than that? Read more here.
You would think having healthy children and joyfully being together would be easier than hospital life. Truly, it is, and I am grateful. But home life is flexing new areas in need of growth inside my heart. It was a humbling week issuing a correction on a story I wrote due to working distracted, reassessing my children’s misbehavior caused by not enough oversight on my part and my tendency to want to drive and work and never stop. I have to stop, have to die to myself, put the computer aside and enter into the world around me, connected to others.
I’m still learning. So it’s good to step back
and see
…
Is there anything pulling you away from a clear focus?
How do you step back to adjust your focus?
What are you trying to focus on?
Leave a comment or email to share!
Lovely reminders!