Summer Margin

Summer is approximately 4.8 days old so far in my life and with it a glorious sense of margin I have not felt for awhile. Granted, my wonderful job allows me beautiful breaks during the year - but there is something about a budding sabbatical that brings mental, emotional, spiritual margin pushing me toward refreshment and growth.

I guess I feel like I've lived on autopilot for awhile now and I'm looking hopefully forward to trying my hand at flying a bit.

There are things that I want to be a consistent part of my life... reading, running, thinking, writing... that make me feel kind of like a failure during a 40 hour work week, because I cannot figure out how to incorporate them in. My hours at home disappear into the washing machine, grocery store, transportation to daughters' activities, a little into the oven and stove, a lot into the dishwasher, and then into exhaustion. I do love my job and feel immensely grateful for the opportunity to do what I do. My job brings me satisfaction, and I highly value what I have the opportunity to spend my hours doing (which I know is not the case for most people, and I recognize this as a blessing) -

However, I also realize that if I live on autopilot, I grow toward self-absorbtion, shallowness, soft in the middleness, and too much t.v. watchingness.

I am currently in Colorado thoroughly enjoying beauty, time to sleep and read and talk with Greg and the girls; time to run, hike, play tennis, and swim; time to play games as a family, go on dates with Greg, watch the Dallas Mavericks play in the NBA Championship (that's the only t.v. we're watching, really) and time to transition to margin.

Happy Summer.