...slow down...

While my faith is of great importance to me, I have found in adulthood that a centering around the idea

~what's for me will not pass me~

has served to bring me more peace and hope then I find in my religious practice. 

(I grew up in an exceptionally conservative household in which God was, in many ways, weaponized against the very natural experiences, questions, and expressions of childhood and youth.

While I consciously, even now, reject that fire and brimstone, I find myself forever branded the disobedient and disappointing child of an angry Father. My relationship to my God and to my religion is one in which I struggle to find peace, acceptance and comfort.  Yet try I do...

But that is for another conversation.  One that I don't think I'll ever have in this space.)

Having gotten that 'out of the way'...

The point, I suppose, is that I put a significant amount of stock in the moment of clarity when something meaningful crosses my path.  I am a collector...a saver...a screenshot for remembrance sort. My gallery full of clippings to remind me.

Books to put on hold at the library.

Recipes to tailor.

Upcoming events and interesting locales.

Educational toys and household items I didn't know I was missing out on.

And words.

Words that zapped me like a bolt of lightning when my eyes lingered for a moment longer.

These words:

Slow Down.

In particular, a post that crossed my feed.  A total stranger.  Unknown, because I cropped the screenshot to just the words, before saving it.

"Let your child(ren) see you slow down."

Let your child(ren) see you rest when rest is needed...relax when overwhelmed...seek solitude and silence when the volume is too much. 

Let your child(ren) observe you care for yourself as well as you care for them.

Let your child(ren) learn self-care by demonstrating your own, and they will be better for it.

Let your child(ren) see you slow down whenever and wherever you need to, and they will learn to do the very same for themselves.

This, friends...

Is wild.

Is novel.

Is...dangerous?

Slow down?

But...all the things...all the balance...all the emergencies...

Slow down?

And, what?  Watch it all fall apart?

Or maybe...

Slow down, and gradually set it all somewhere safe to pick back up once you are fully rested...fully recovered...fully recharged.

Or...

Maybe...

Slow down

and

Set it all somewhere safe

and

Only pick up what you can handle...what you want to handle...what you choose to handle.

The rush isn't actually getting me anywhere faster.

The chaos isn't adding function.

But the quiet of a few minutes with coffee and a good book?

The pouring into self before draining into others?

The sleeping until exhaustion is appeased?

The corner seat with a blank screen to write it out?

Oh?!?

Yes.

Slowing down.

Teaching myself and my child(ren) of the value in slowing down and finding rest and recovery and reassurance in the silence of stillness.

This.
Was meant for me.

This.

Will not pass me by.

September is for Slowing Down...

and finding myself anew amidst the detritus that sloughs off when my constant motion comes to a stop.