“Oh, you thought I was done!? No, we still have something to do … Shhh, first we need to make sure no one is here. Go look around the corner and check.”
April: “Okay Mom, I don’t see anyone.”
“Okay, now … on your mark!”
April: “What, why, where … what are we doing?!!”
“We’re racing to the Director’s office and back, but the only way we can do it is to skip.”
April: “What!! No. I’m running.”
“Uhh uhhh we’re skipping. We can get there faster if we skip. Now, take a breath and ... GO!”
A skipping race … obviously it would be faster if we just ran, but what fun would that be? I sometimes take April to work with me in the evenings or on weekends and we do some running around. A little work and then we take a long deep breath, run, skip, and/or bounce, write on blank white boards (maybe you’ve seen our mark ;D], giggle, and laugh our way through the empty hallways.
This particular story was a little over two weeks ago and the church hallways were dark and quiet. No one was there except the janitor, but we weren’t quite sure where she was at the time; so we took advantage of the moment and raced. We skipped, run-skipped, bounced off a few walls, and laughed until we almost peed our pants. Well, April laughed a little more than I did … but then my skipping does seem to provide a fair amount of entertainment.
It’s one of my favourite things to do.
It’s one of my favourite ways to end whatever I have been doing.
Ending a day,
Ending a project,
Ending a season,
Ending a year,
Lets call it an ending for every ending.
I don’t mean ending with skipping, running or laughter. No, the ending doesn’t necessarily come in the form of running, skipping, bouncing or even laughter, nor is it usually in the church hallways, but there is always a relief at the end of the day or season.
It’s in a breath.
It is a release from whatever has come or has happened. Our day ends in taking a breath. The day is done and… Thank You God … I’m still breathing! As simple as this is, this realization that yes I am still breathing forms into gratitude and even joy, Done and I’m still breathing!
So parents, friends, loved ones … as the staff are wrapping up 2015 this is the very simple subject we are reflecting on. What a year … but we are still breathing! We have all had struggles in 2015. It would be hard to make it through any year without struggles of some sort wouldn’t it? Struggles that involve our children, our children’s behaviour, our spouses, our parents, our employers, our finances, loss of someone we love, floods, illness … well we may as well add our own behaviour as none of us is perfect. or immune to the effects of struggle. It happens every year of our life, yes in varying degrees … but it happens. The year is almost done …
Yet we breathe.
Thank you God, we are still breathing!
Gratitude in the breath!
Joy in the gratitude!
We breathe.
We are praying for your New Year. We pray that the challenges started in 2015 have or will end, and we get to move onto new challenges. Yes that’s right, we “get to move on to the new challenges”! Bless you and we will see you in 2016!
[Yes it’s true … I’m still excited for 2016, even after this challenging year. Maybe you’ll see me skipping down the hallway in the middle of the day … then again maybe I’ll just keep that for April and I. Oh, unless you need a laugh … let me know and I will be glad to entertain you with my skip ;) Disclaimer: April has asked me to be sure that when I said, “almost peed our pants” that it really meant almost.]
April: “Okay Mom, I don’t see anyone.”
“Okay, now … on your mark!”
April: “What, why, where … what are we doing?!!”
“We’re racing to the Director’s office and back, but the only way we can do it is to skip.”
April: “What!! No. I’m running.”
“Uhh uhhh we’re skipping. We can get there faster if we skip. Now, take a breath and ... GO!”
A skipping race … obviously it would be faster if we just ran, but what fun would that be? I sometimes take April to work with me in the evenings or on weekends and we do some running around. A little work and then we take a long deep breath, run, skip, and/or bounce, write on blank white boards (maybe you’ve seen our mark ;D], giggle, and laugh our way through the empty hallways.
This particular story was a little over two weeks ago and the church hallways were dark and quiet. No one was there except the janitor, but we weren’t quite sure where she was at the time; so we took advantage of the moment and raced. We skipped, run-skipped, bounced off a few walls, and laughed until we almost peed our pants. Well, April laughed a little more than I did … but then my skipping does seem to provide a fair amount of entertainment.
It’s one of my favourite things to do.
It’s one of my favourite ways to end whatever I have been doing.
Ending a day,
Ending a project,
Ending a season,
Ending a year,
Lets call it an ending for every ending.
I don’t mean ending with skipping, running or laughter. No, the ending doesn’t necessarily come in the form of running, skipping, bouncing or even laughter, nor is it usually in the church hallways, but there is always a relief at the end of the day or season.
It’s in a breath.
It is a release from whatever has come or has happened. Our day ends in taking a breath. The day is done and… Thank You God … I’m still breathing! As simple as this is, this realization that yes I am still breathing forms into gratitude and even joy, Done and I’m still breathing!
So parents, friends, loved ones … as the staff are wrapping up 2015 this is the very simple subject we are reflecting on. What a year … but we are still breathing! We have all had struggles in 2015. It would be hard to make it through any year without struggles of some sort wouldn’t it? Struggles that involve our children, our children’s behaviour, our spouses, our parents, our employers, our finances, loss of someone we love, floods, illness … well we may as well add our own behaviour as none of us is perfect. or immune to the effects of struggle. It happens every year of our life, yes in varying degrees … but it happens. The year is almost done …
Yet we breathe.
Thank you God, we are still breathing!
Gratitude in the breath!
Joy in the gratitude!
We breathe.
We are praying for your New Year. We pray that the challenges started in 2015 have or will end, and we get to move onto new challenges. Yes that’s right, we “get to move on to the new challenges”! Bless you and we will see you in 2016!
[Yes it’s true … I’m still excited for 2016, even after this challenging year. Maybe you’ll see me skipping down the hallway in the middle of the day … then again maybe I’ll just keep that for April and I. Oh, unless you need a laugh … let me know and I will be glad to entertain you with my skip ;) Disclaimer: April has asked me to be sure that when I said, “almost peed our pants” that it really meant almost.]
Posted in Getting to The Heart of the Matter
Recent
Archive
2022
2014
August
October
No Comments