This is a guest post from Alicia Kazsuk, founder of VibrantHomeschooling.com.
My address for the last few days has been Times Square (we’ve been vacationing in New York City).
But truly, our house for the last nine months has felt much like this sprawling center of hubbub and activity—lots of flashing lights and activities, new and exciting revelations… and of course, like the Big Apple itself, a place that “never sleeps.”
Ironically enough, it has been in New York (the polar opposite of our lovely rural small town) that I’ve been finally able to catch my breath.
Clarity. Reflection. A vision for where we’re going as a family (and for where I’m going as a woman). Those are some of the greatest treasures I’m taking home from my trip.
Do you ever go through seasons like that—where you just feel like so much has happened, and you have to slow down to absorb and appreciate it?
As a mom, one of my biggest fears is that I will miss it—I will miss the incredible, simple pleasures of the everyday. That I will look back on this season and forget all the tiny details, when I know that so much richness resides there.
It’s like that feeling you get when you look into your two-year-old’s chubby cheeks and you just can’t stop kissing them because you know that in a few short years—a blink of an eye, really—his cheeks will thin out and he will look like a completely different person.
I feel such bittersweet emotion looking at those cheeks because I know that he is slowly, incrementally changing and that he won’t look like this for much longer. I just want to hold these moments in my heart in a way that no picture or video ever could!
How does that happen?! How can we treasure these memories? I don’t have any answers except to say that I feel less anxiety about this when I can take time to reflect, savor and treasure.
And I’ve learned that these moments can only happen if I build them into my life. Not in a “to-do list” kind of way—but a mindset and lifestyle shift.
They happen when I create space between our running to-and-fro, say no to something (even if it is a good something) and choose to invest in what’s nourishing, right and whole for myself and my family.
Writing the “bloom” class this summer was a big part of this for me. It was so wonderful to be able to walk through all of the areas that I see homeschooling moms challenged with (including myself) and then to just address each issue one by one, listening to God’s great wisdom on how we can each find clarity and growth.
As a society, we find ourselves going and going and going—running at a relentless pace to… where? We are searching and searching for that “better life” with our endless busyness… and yet sometimes a life of quiet goodness and simple moments of slowness can bestow us the full life we’re looking for.
For me, my life is so much richer when I purposely take those moments (both the regular shorter moments built into the day’s rhythm, and longer, getaway type moments like I needed to write “bloom”) to gain perspective.
That is a huge lesson that I’ve learned this summer.
Well, of course it’s not a new lesson (because the concept is familiar to many of us).
But, through small shifts, it’s beginning to become a description of my life and not just a common mantra that I’ve rarely lived out.
I’m finding practical ways to enjoy my life—to treasure, to slow down and to appreciate the immense amount of beauty that fills the everyday.
It’s a moment by moment decision, but I’m discovering that rest is a gift that I must stop to enjoy. It’s not a prison sentence (“I have to go rest now…”) or something that keeps me from my never-ending to-do list. Instead, choosing replenishment over a relentless pace gives me the passion I need to do this mothering job well.
Step by step, little-by-little, I see myself making choices that are making me a mom that is replenished and ready to serve her family.
That thought fills my heart and makes me excited to start a new year!
What have you most learned about yourself this summer? How do you make rest a practical part of your life? What tiny shifts to change are you working through?
Alicia Kazsuk is the founder of VibrantHomeschooling.com and a homeschool mom to four bright, curious students. Her passion is to encourage and equip moms to joyfully thrive in the often-challenging homeschooling season. She is the author of Plan to Be Flexible: Designing A Homeschool Rhythm and Curriculum Plan That Works for Your Family and The 5 Best-Kept Secrets of Successful Homeschoolers (a free resource for site subscribers). Alicia also writes and produces online video courses for homeschooling moms (“bloom” and “rhythm”) that give practical instruction and customized learning. Check out these and other valuable resources at VibrantHomeschooling.com.
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