Around our house, this weekend had a distinctly different feeling. The weather was a little more cool and crisp, but it was more than that. We didn’t have any ball games on Saturday. There wasn’t any homework to catch up on, or school agendas to fill in for the coming week. There was a lightness in the air from the freedom of it all.
I even took a 20 minute nap on Sunday!
(I can’t even begin to remember when that happened last.) I woke up to find this interesting scene in the driveway. My mind instantly thought “Oh boy, this is going to take some time to clean up”, but then I realized that for once, we had some time. My boy had been out there working hard to make a candy dispenser for his beloved Halloween candy and in this particular moment, I could share in his excitement instead of thinking about the cost of our time and energy to clean it up.
And that made all the difference.
I sat down beside him and asked lots of questions. He was so proud of his creation and I was able to sincerely celebrate his joy with him without all the chatter in the back of my mind about the impending clean up effort. In fact, after he showed me all the bells and whistles, I reminded him to get it all cleaned up and put away. He said, “Yes Ma’am” and that was that.
He cleaned it up.
I can’t stop thinking about how that simple shift in my thoughts created a giant space for connection with him that I would’ve missed out on most any other Sunday. In that moment, he got my eye contact, my mind, and my heart. I was all in. . . and he knew it. Sadly, that’s not always the case. I’m often running from this thing to that, with an urgency in my mind that’s always reminding me of what’s coming next. Messes are inconveniences to my day because they always require clean up.
What about you?
Do the people in your life get only your outer layer of attention while your mind is racing with everything else there is to do? I wonder what would happen if, even just this week, you made a conscious decision to be wholly present where you are.
I bet there would be a lot more room for connection, creativity, and joy.
Those are some really good things to be thankful for.
Let’s do it!
You in?
to more love,
Crystal
