Low and Slow

“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.” ~Molière

Today is Friday.  And if you’re thinking you have to get everything from your list wrapped up today before the weekend, and you’re rushing:

Try to slow it down.  And if you can’t slow down this morning, try slowing down this afternoon or this evening with your family.

One of the best books I have discovered and read over and over is Slow Family Living:  75 Simple Ways to Slow Down, Connect and Create More Joy.  I came across this book one day at Blue Willow Bookshop, a lovely independent bookshop here in Houston.  Bernadette Noll was speaking at a book signing, which I couldn’t make – but I had to buy the book.  Then, I learned about their online community – which is so rich in helpful information and nudging thoughts to jar us out of the constant hurried pace in which our world operates.

I felt comforted knowing there were others who believe we can go slow.  This world moves way too quickly for me most days, and this book is an excellent toolbox of 75 ways to unplug and relax as a family.  (And, since we've been talking about writing, one of the 75 tools includes an excellent journaling prompt, which you’ll find when you buy the book.)

Slowing down as a mama and a family can really help us see our world, listen to our breathing, and think for ourselves.  We don’t need the world to do these things for us.  When we slow down, we can put ourselves back in touch with our priorities and emotions that fuel us to create better or worse.

And with slowing down comes writing. Since writing has been a focus over the last couple of days, take a few minutes today to be intentional with your family’s time and write about your plans this weekend:

-What events are on your calendar?

-What events/commitments are non-negotiable?

-What events can you say no to?

-When can you get outside and play?

-Or, when can you have creative time?

-Will you have screen time?  And if so, how much?

I wish you a slower weekend, even if it’s not super quiet!  It feels a bit more fall-like here in Houston.  Today we’ll only have highs in the 80’s instead of in the 90’s.  We’ll take it!

One thing today:  Journal a very loose plan for the weekend.  Be intentional.

Resources:

Slow Family Living (the book)

Slow Family Living (the online community)

Know Yourself: Daily Writing

“We do not write in order to be understood, we write in order to understand.” ~C. Day-Lewis

This quote is one of my favorite perspectives about writing:  it helps us understand.  Writing helps us better process ourselves, our worlds, our paths, our challenges, as well as our hopes and dreams.  Writing helps us bring abstractions to life – to bring color to grey thoughts that linger in our minds.

 

Let’s talk about daily writing today.  Shall we?

Today, I’d like to share a few resources that have helped me keep my personal writing up:

Although I’ve loved writing and journaling since I was a child, it was Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance:  A Daybook of Comfort and Joy that reminded me in my adult years to write down my thoughts each day.  She calls it her “daily dialogue” – pulling out the thoughts from her head – her “stream of consciousness” - and putting them on paper each day.

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, is also a staunch believer in daily writing.  She calls her writing doing her “morning pages” – taking half an hour or so to extract all of the thoughts in her mind in the morning and putting them on paper so she can think more clearly throughout the day. 

This past summer, I reinstated mandatory morning pages for this mama – and it was just what I needed.  I set my alarm each morning during the week (weekends were optional) to wake up one hour before my children.  All I needed was a cup of hot coffee and my notebook and pen – these were simple pleasures that allowed me to get reacquainted with myself.  And they are still my favorite things!

Take some time to find a notebook (and a writing utensil!) that feels comfortable.  You may decide to choose a lovely journal. Or, you may feel a spiral notebook is more your style.  Because I write so much and so frequently, spiral notebooks have become a great option - they’re easier to keep up with, they’re larger and more economical since I’m buying them often.  This summer, though, I chose a journal I felt would boost my creativity a bit:

If paper is not your favorite thing, or if you’re really trying to minimize things and stick with technology, try using Evernote.  It’s a great application that is available for most smart phones and all computers.  When I’m caught without paper, I use Evernote on my phone.  It’s super user-friendly, and it's also slightly addicting.

Daily writing is not so much about the paper or pens – but about the routine of taking time for yourself to be aware of your thoughts.  To stop and breathe and think.  What is God telling you today?  What is on your mind?  What challenges do you need to work through? What things are you excited about?

One thing today:  Find a notebook that you love.  Then find a pen that writes comfortably.  Or, check out Evernote online and/or download the free app on your phone.  Take five minutes to write!

Resources:

Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Evernote

Hello, 31 days of finding our passion.

“Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny.”  ~Thomas Merton

Welcome to a journey, friend.

Today begins a 31-day expedition to finding our passion and learning a little more about ourselves. My hope is that this will be a journey for both of us that will reunite us with our passion(s): first, by identifying those elements we feel so strongly about, and secondly, by finding a path to pursue them.   

God has hard-wired us to have passions - but we need to find them!  This month, I hope to help you find yours.

My story...

This year, I’m in a new season of life:  my baby boy just began kindergarten this fall and is in school full-time.  My other baby is a strong-willed fourth-grade girl who is ready to conquer the world!  For the first time, our babies are finally together at the same school.  (And, yes, I will always refer to them as my babies.  Always.)  I’m still trying to get used to this new season of not having any children at home.  I've had a few emotional days.

In my past season of life, though, when I was the mama of littles running around the house and had very limited free time, I let tasks and commitments govern me – and made little to no time for personal creative pursuits.  Only mama and house business.  All the time.  Fresh food first.  Laundry next.  Exercise and sleep (good – but not always fun).  Commitments after that. ...These activities left very little mental creative time for this mama.  Plus, I was basing my self-worth on how well I was finishing my to-do list every day.  

Once my little guy dropped his afternoon nap, I set no boundaries for my personal time (which is also when I stopped blogging).  I love spending time with our children, but I seldom saved any of my time for the one thing I needed most:  creative dabbling, dwelling in possibility, resting in an idea, pursuing a creative vision.  It seemed too self-indulgent!  Discipline as a wife, mother and other roles had won:  it wouldn’t leave any room for beauty, spontaneity, whimsy, color or fun. 

This past spring, I found myself feeling a little lost - wondering who I was beyond being a mother. I felt very grey - like I was living in a monotone world.  (Remember the movie “Pleasantville”?) After several tearful conversations with my supportive husband, I realized that I had become so disciplined that I had simply lost a part of myself.  The creative path was no longer a part of my life; I had simply lost my role as a creative writer mama.  

And I wasn’t even sure I had the energy to get it back.

Baby steps

The more mamas I speak to, the more I'm learning that this lack of passion is a common experience for many women.

What about you?  How are you feeling today?

Take a few minutes to think about what’s on your mind and write down your thoughts.  Start creating some mental space for things other than your to-do list. What do you feel passionate about today?

Taking time to write down my thoughts a few minutes each day was the beginning of a therapeutic, productive process.  I'll share more about that tomorrow.

 

The Oxford Dictionary defines passion as strong emotion or enthusiasm; eagerness, intensity, zeal, mania, obsession, craze, hunger, itch, yearning, longing, desire.

How about a cup of this?  Yes, please!

Looking forward to our journey.

I'd like to dedicate this post to Kat at HowTheyBlog.com and Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy.  Anne talked about passion in a recent interview with Kat - and it really sparked a creative process.  Many thanks, Kat and Anne.

How do we bloom?

"Bloom where you are planted."

These have always been some of my favorite words - a simple, daily challenge: be the best we can with what we have, where we are.  Mary Engelbreit always has a way of summing things up in a graceful, humbling manner.  These words stayed on our giant chalkboard wall near our kitchen for nearly two years! 

In this season of my life, I like to think about how I can bloom where I am planted - how I can be the best version of myself, offering a true, loving presence with my children, my husband, family, friends - all people, if possible.  Is this possible?

Just thinking about this topic all day today made me realize how I'd like to live for myself and for my family these days:  more than the minimum.  Just existing or being or making ends meet is not enough.  Living out loud with zest, beauty, Spirit, fearless abandon, faith - this is blooming.  And some days this means putting both legs in the freezing cold waters of the Pacific in our beach community with my children, even when I don't care to be cold!  Afterward, it's a little bit electrifying.  And I know I'm a little more alive than I was before.

We should all consider what makes us bloom in the grande garden we have been given.  Are we using our gifts?  Are we nurturing our bodies with love and respect?  Are we using our bodies to see the world, one walk at a time?  Are we engaging our minds and igniting the creative energy we have been given?  Are we celebrating what we were given on the loveliest day when we were born, regardless of the year?  If we can say "yes" to one of these, we're on the right path.

For our family, blooming also means becoming part of a community - belonging.  Connecting with others energizes me and our family - which I believe allows us to bloom even more.  To bloom is also to live with others, out loud, with color, beauty.

Perhaps we are all here to connect, to provide a little more beauty in each other's lives?  And that will make us bloom, too.

This post is part of Five-Minute Friday, a collection of writings by different bloggers wishing to participate and reflect...  These words are dedicated to a lovely friend, Jessica.  Thank you for helping me bloom over lots of conversation this week.  xoxo

On Writing for Five Minutes

Today is Friday.  And today, I thought I would link up with some lovely ladies for Five-Minute Friday:  and write about a word.

Belong.

In the spirit of trying to write more in my surroundings and embrace my natural environment with children jumping over and behind me, I type.  And I thank Crystal Stine for the invitation that I found on her Twitter feed last night, very, very late.  I am thankful also for the mocha that kept me awake long enough to force myself to have quiet, solo personal time while little eyelids rested next door.

As I type this, we are visiting a very tiny, intimate community in coastal Oregon.  And our family feels that our souls belong here each July.  We belong to nature.  We belong to the familiar faces we saw last year, and the year before.  We belong to the dear friends we’ve made who we only see here, now.  While we’re in Oregon.

And I also think about the friends and family – and the blending of the two – we left behind in Texas.  As we left our friends at the curbside dropoff at the airport, I cried tears of thankfulness for our friends – and sadness for the sweet little faces of children I will miss while we are far and away in Oregon.  We belong with them.

I write this with so much thankfulness that we belong to different communities in this season of our lives.  And that somehow, for today, I belong to a group of writers who also write for a free five minutes.

Amen.

Happy.

In love with paper + change is a-comin'

To my dear and patient readers...

In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t written a new post since May of this year.

My sweet mother informed me last week that she is tired of “The Perfect Pancake, Edited.” She keeps asking when I will have a new post published. (Her question reminds me of one of my favorite parts of the movie “Julie and Julia” when her mother tells her “I think I’m your only reader.”)

Mom, thank you for always supporting me and being a faithful reader.

I also want to thank my lovely friend Kirsten, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She is always so generous in her compliments about my blog thoughts – and deserves a royal shout-out.

When school let out for the summer, the little personal time I had was spent on a few freelance projects. And, since July, I’ve been taking some time off from social media altogether. (Gasp – I know! This is especially ironic since I took an amazing social media marketing course from Media Bistro this summer.)

We vacationed in Oregon for two weeks in July – and this trip was the perfect excuse to completely unplug. Only I haven't full-heartedly plugged back in yet.

The strange thing about unplugging from Twitter (my favorite social media tool), reading blogs around the clock and frequently listening to podcasts is that my mind has rested a bit. I’ve also rekindled my romance – or obsession – with paper. I’ve been able to slow down, enjoy much more presence with my family, gain some clarity. And, I have decided to refocus my content on Chocolate, Paper and Scissors for you, my readers.

Re-launch plans coming soon.

Thank you for all of your support!