2017 is gone and 2018 is here – ready or not!

I am feeling mostly not ready.

We had a wonderful Christmas break with all of our children coming in for about a week together. It was a marvelous time of playing tourist, silliness and laughter, too much food, deep conversations, and sharing dreams for the future. I am very grateful for each of them and for their love and appreciation for each other.

Now that everyone has gone home, I have come down with a cold and cannot get to my “to-do” lists like I had hoped… and as much as I don’t like this, I think it is a good thing. It is actually the perfect way for me to start the year.

Unable to hustle. Needing to rest. 

Every time I attempt a few tasks, I end up feeling exhausted and find myself taking some time with my feet up under a blanket with a cup of hot tea in my hand. Not my normal. Not my preference.

Unhurried.

I am tempted to feel guilty and discouraged. There are so many things I want to get done during my vacation days. But this is exactly what unhurried living is all about – being OK with the rhythms of life – some active days and some slow days. Some productivity and some time to rest and re-charge.

My activities do not define my value or my identity.

John Ruskin writes, “In our whole life-melody the music is broken off here and there by ‘rests’… God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives… Not without design does God write the music of our lives. But be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the ‘rests’.”

So, I am starting off this year with the ideal practice scenario for learning to trust God to write the life-melody for my 2018.  I look forward to feeling better soon, but for now I want to be at peace with my rest and enjoy the music of His design.

Here’s to an unhurried 2018!

What might be the “rests” in your life? How are you learning to live unhurried this year?