The Spaces in Our Lives

I was teaching a violin lesson last week and was trying to explain to my student that the space between the notes was vital to how the music sounded and the overall style of the piece. So often we focus on the notes themselves and ignore the space between the notes. I'm not talking about rests - when you completely stop playing and wait until the next note. Those are also important and vital in a different way. It all works together to create an enjoyable song or piece. We need space to create a certain effect and we need rests to breathe (quite literally if you are singing or playing an instrument that requires lung capacity!)

Another analogy that comes to mind is the phrase "life is like a marathon". I know what this phrase is getting at, but maybe life is more like a series of sprints and we need time to rest between the bursts of energy.

What I'm getting at is this...space in our lives is important for many reasons. It gives us time to rest and rebuild. It gives us time to breathe. It gives us a certain rhythm.

Earlier this week our family went for a hike. I had my camera along and quickly discovered something I wanted to photograph. The rest of my family didn't quite feel the same way about the mushroom and continued hiking. I loved taking time to stop and notice the details, but then I felt rushed to try to catch up with my family. That's when the hike stopped being fun for me.

I know we aren't all created equally (I've been slightly obsessed with studying personality types and innate personal nature), but I do believe we all need to make a little more space in our lives. This might look like observing the Sabbath more intentionally or practicing a daily quiet time. Maybe it means creating physical space by clearing off surfaces or decluttering our closets.

When looking at an overall picture, keep in mind there are little details that make this overall picture possible.

Slow Summer

It's June and that means it's time to make our summer bucket list!

Nope...not gonna happen here. I'm much more likely to make a list of things we're not going to do than make a list of things we need to do.

Don't misunderstand me....there are plenty of things I'd like to do with my kids this summer. Things like swimming at the local beach, eating s'mores around the camp fire, playing with friends, eat popsicles and more. But when I create lists of things I'd like to do, it ends up becoming a "to-do" list, and I look at it something I must complete and cross off the list. Instead, I'd much prefer that we have very little on our calendar so we have the time and space for things to happen organically and spontaneously.

So instead of creating a summer bucket list, I have one goal - to slow down and savor each day.

I'd love to wake up each day and be able to ask..."What should we do today?"

In order to make this happen, I need to guard our calendar like a hawk. We already have some big things on the calendar and it's enough. One big thing each month is enough.

We need to leave room for the little things. 

I'm writing this post mostly for myself - to remind myself to be intentional about slowing down - but also for you. I see summer bucket-lists swirling around blogs and pinterest, and it's easy to get sucked into the trend.

There is nothing wrong with bucket lists. But it's not something you need to do to have a happy, fun-filled summer. It's ok to say no to making lists and to say yes to slowing down.

This is what minimalism or living simply is to me - removing things from your life that are actually distractions. To me, a summer bucket list is a distraction.





Maybe I view summer a bit differently than most people. You see, my family doesn't live for the summer and try to cram everything in to 2-3 months. We try to embrace each season, month and week for what it is. (This is one of the HUGE benefits of homeschooling!)

This past week we had family here and took a 2 day trip to central Oregon (one of our favorite places). As I was out walking I realized how blessed I am to be in this place in life. We've intentionally created a life that allows us to go on many little (and some big) adventures throughout the year. We're not enduring this time that our kids are in school and waiting for our later years....we are making it happen now so we can enjoy our time as a family.

It means saying no to all the things our culture tells us we should do. But it means saying yes to a beautiful, adventurous life. And this, my friends, is why I am passionate about simplifying.

Living Slowly

Although I've tried to live more intentionally the past few years, last year (2013) was my year of intentional slowing down. Toward the end of 2012 I began praying for a new word that would frame my upcoming year....a word that would give me purpose and focus...a word through which God would grow me.

The word I felt called to pursue was SLOW, thus 2013 was the year of slowing down.

Here in America, we don't live in a culture where slowness is valued. We are encouraged and expected to multi-task, to be busy, to involve our kids in any and every activity, and sometimes we wear our business as a badge of honor and rate the value of our lives by how busy we are. This kind of life is just not my dream for myself or my family. I really want to give my family - myself - the great gift of freedom that is found in living counter-culturally.

I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all definition of what living slowly looks like, but I do know that when you are intentional about slowing down, the rewards are great.

For my family of four, living in the suburbs of a Pacific Northwest city, slow, intentional living includes the following:

• choosing to home educate our daughters
• embracing the "home" part of homeschooling
• not participating in extra curricular activities outside the home (no sports, no lessons, no clubs)
• weekend adventures (hiking, sailing, traveling, exploring)
• reading books aloud as a family
• preparing and eating dinner as a family every single night
• planting and maintaining a backyard garden where we can grow our own food 
• pursuing ministry and missions as a family
• pursuing individual interests within the context of family and home (we are musicians, artists, photographers, readers, writers, teachers and more)
• finding ways to nurture our creativity
• pursuing a healthy lifestyle when it comes to diet and exercise 
• pursuing a minimalist lifestyle and turning our backs on mainstream consumerism
• active participation in and fellowship with our church 
• actively living out our faith daily - praying, studying and worshiping together
• learning to be better stewards of God's creation through environmental awareness and care

I'm sure there are more ways, and I could easily write a post on each of the above items, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of what slow, intentional living looks like for our family.

I am thrilled to be part of the Blue Bike Blog Tour today. Notes From a Blue Bike is written by Tsh Oxenreider, founder and main voice of The Art of Simple. In her new book, Tsh gently shares her own story of wanting to slow down the pace of her family's life here in the US. After experiencing life in another culture, she and her husband sought ways to live life more slowly...more intentionally. Tsh covers so many topics in her book with personal stories and practical examples of what this means for her family. 

We don't all have to downsize our homes or move to smaller cities or homeschool our kids to live more intentionally. We can make small choices and changes and find freedom from a slower pace. 

The years seem to pass too quickly on their own, and I don't want to rush through my girls' childhoods. I want to enjoy this time - savor each moment (or at least most of them). I want to wake up each day with energy and a positive outlook on the day. I want to go to bed each night with a smile and a heart full of gratitude. 

This is what slow living does for me. 

Here is a bit more from Tsh about her new book....

If you want to know more, visit Notes From a Blue Bike.

Slow Month ~ Week 1

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this week! It helped that the sun made an appearance several times. But really, it was so freeing to not have activities dictate our days.

We did start off the week with an art class field trip. This was the one activity we kept on the calendar, partly due to the fact that I had already paid for it and partly due to the fact that we were all looking forward to it.

But the rest of the week we had no scheduled activities other than the karate lessons we take as a family on Monday nights.

So what did we do with ourselves?

School

Started a new read-aloud book

baked pumpkin muffins

went for a couple 3 miles walks

skyped with our cousins

skyped with our friends

made a pot of homemade cheesy potato broccoli soup

took many photographs

 practiced karate daily

practiced violin daily (not the quick, 5-minute practices we'd gotten used to)

  danced

built forts

One morning we even spent an hour reading our own books. I didn't plan this, it just happened and it was glorious. My youngest joined me on the couch in the living room, and my oldest cozied up in a blanket on the futon. Normally, I would have put a stop to this leisure so we could get ready to go somewhere or get started with school. Instead, we were able to just take some time to read.

It really was a revelation to me that I could live the life I wanted to live. I don't have to complain to others that we are busier than we like to be. I have complete control over how busy we are. If I want to slow our lives down, then I have to cut down on activities. It might sound like sacrifice, but it really is freedom. When sharing with others I even had people thank me for setting an example. Give yourself permission to slow down.

I can't wait to see what next today - and even next week - brings! 

MUST.SLOW.DOWN

February has been a crazy month.

Too many illnesses.

Too many activities.

Too many commitments.

This mama is tired.

I'm tired of trying to squeeze in school because we have to get it done. I'm tired of eating meals quickly so we can make it to the next scheduled activity. I'm tired of getting home late and the girls having to go straight to bed.

I miss family walks. I miss reading books aloud. I miss playing games. I miss quiet time. I miss going off on educational tangents because we want to know more.

It hit me hard yesterday and I realized we MUST SLOW DOWN.

I've declared March to be our "stay at home month". We can't stay home from everything. There are some things we are financially committed to and other things we are more emotionally committed to. We are all making sacrifices to make this happen. We are opening our arms wide to embrace the "home" part of homeschool.

The timing of this is perfect, in my opinion. These remaining weeks of Lent when we are supposedly making preparations and room for God in our lives. This requires slowing down.

And it's another lesson concerning my word for the year.

Now I'm off to light some candles, listen to Bach and enjoy my children.

Being Intentional ~ Slowing Down

In recent years I have begun choosing a word to be my theme for the year. Actually, I try really hard not to choose the word myself, but rather I ask God to reveal a word to me ~ an area in which He would like to see me grow.

I've never had God answer me audibly, but I do think He has given me the words over the past four years. As I look back I can see how the words seem to be building on each other. In conversation with a friend today, she compared it to a wall that God is building ~ a wall that will hopefully remain long after we've left this life. And these words are the bricks used in that wall.

The first year I did this I felt a bit cheesy choosing the word LOVE, but it also seemed like a good starting point. The next year my word was QUIET and almost immediately I came across Zephaniah 3:17 and learned that God would quiet me with his love. This past year my word was LISTEN. It took me a while to realize that listen has the same letters as silent....I felt reassured that God would quiet me with his love so that I could be silent and listen.

A couple months ago I really felt the desire to slow down. I get so tired of rushing around, living life like it's an emergency, reading through books just to finish them, always asking my kids to hurry up...you get the idea.

It became clear to me that my word for 2013 needed to be SLOW. It occurred to me that it might be more spiritual sounding to choose still (as in Be still and know I am God), but as I thought about the word slow, it seemed more appropriate. I do need to slow down. I certainly didn't master the word listen, so I'm hoping that as I slow down this year, I will fine tune my listening.

I want to be able to enjoy each moment ~ even the mundane ones ~ possibly even the hard ones. I want to savor each bite I eat, each book I read, each hug I receive.

I want to slow down.

I'm only 3 days into the new year, but I already notice a difference. I actually feel like my days are bigger. Yesterday I didn't everything done I wanted to get done before we had to leave the house, but I took a deep breath and did as much as time allowed. You know what? I had plenty of time to finish what needed finishing when we got home. Cooking dinner was even enjoyable because I tried to enjoy it  - not just get it done.

So that's my first area of being intentional this year....I'm putting on the brakes and slowing down.