“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” ~Annie Dillard

It was one of those days where there was too much to get done and not enough motivation to get started. So you know what I did? Nothing. I sipped coffee and I chased after my children. I had a pillow fight with the pillows already left on the floor. After a busy, away from home weekend, I really should have spent the day cleaning. Instead, we cuddled a lot. We danced a little. We wrestled on the area rug and we read books and we baked dozens of cupcakes and licked clean every spoon. We talked about how to do right and being a kind brother.

The housework will wait. Not for long, I believe strongly in a home well made, in mamma  loving her family by creating safe and comfy spaces. I’m learning though, that safe and comfy does not translate to surgical grade sterility. I never feel more at home than when I spot a dust bunny under your living room furniture.

I’ve been thinking often lately that a well lived life has very little to do with the time you have but with how you spend it. Six years ago I was incredibly efficient. People were pulled into the pulleys and motors of my life chewed up and spit out. Everything moving so fast I had no control over the outcomes. I judged others on how full their calendars were, how much output they produced, how efficiently they could produce it. The one most marred by the pace was my own spirit. I forgot what it needs to thrive.

So now, I try to carve out moments for ink and paper, for Bread of Life, for playing outside. The things that whisper hope to me. The places I find my strength, the identity that stands stronger than the day-to-day incidentals and failures.

How is your time carving going? Are you creating sweet moments for God to speak to you in your deepest places? Do you even know what that feels like? Do you remember how to find Him?

I know if feels like luxury friend…it isn’t. Make quiet space to breathe in air that smells like earth. To eat words that taste like truth.  One day, realizing your soul has died back will take much more time to repair; will cost much more than the few minutes it takes to live fully.