It is time to write again.  Ideas have been flitting through my mind from the moment I completed my previous post. It is difficult for me to ever cease from thinking about writing.  It is almost as if my daily existence is a journal and my being is the pen. Every inspiration, action, or happening results in the thought, “I need to write this down!”  Walking is my most word fertile time. It is almost as if the path in front of me beckons the sentences, paragraphs, and pages from the very core of my being. Add to that the dust diamonds sparkling in the sunbeams being filtered through the leafy archways above my hand and classical music emanating from the window of a house nearby…whew! delicious torture for a writer’s mind!

I have ample time to ponder and reflect on that glorious gift we all have in common: LIFE. Days with tiny people has completely altered the pace of living for me.  I used to live at a focused pace, always thinking about how much I could accomplish in as short amount of time as possible.  That is no longer the case. Now everything happens in snippets. When I have time to read, I am content if I am able to read an entire paragraph in one sitting before a baby wakes up from a nap or my best friend gets home from work.  When my husband and I decide to watch a movie, it is a rare occurrence if we complete it in one evening.  Over the Christmas season we managed to stretch 3 movies over 2 months because I usually fell asleep after 15 or 20 minutes! The daily routine is broken up into numerous snippets of meals, playtimes, naptimes, outside time.  Nothing can be done for too long due to infant and toddler attention spans. Christmas decorating had to be done in snippets over a period of days since it was squeezed between naps and diaper changes and meals. This took some getting used to for someone who is used to never leaving a project undone if it can be finished today.

It’s taken some getting used to, yes, but now I can see the benefit of life in snippets.  I find myself pondering more deeply what I read or watched last, as if the book or movie is more woven with my life.  I have never decorated as beautifully as I did this past Christmas because I had more time to envision how I wanted our cottage to look.  And the day to day routine? I didn’t realize how much detail is overlooked in a day until I began to see the world from a toddler’s vantage point.  Did you know that specks on a step could be so fascinating? Or how fun it is to crawl as fast as you can with a toy in each hand? Or how important it is to put all of the refrigerator magnets into the Mr. Lid drawer, look at them, and then take them all back out again?  But in all seriousness, a slower, more dedicated pace is important for the intentional person.  I am attempting to learn that it’s not so much about all that I can get done in a day, or even a lifetime, but about how much of me is invested in what I do.  Jesus walked when He was on earth and in doing so He saw Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree, the Samaritan woman at the well, and the paralytic man by the healing pool.  He rose early to spend time in prayer. He sat in order to teach His disciples and preach to the multitudes.  He moved at a pace that allowed Him to hear the still, small voice of His Father.  Yes, sometimes the snippets in life are what make it whole and fulfilling.

Well, that’s all the writing I can do for now.  There’s crying in the background and baths to be done.