Taking Time To Pick Up Rocks

Since a couple of months ago I had watched the movie, "The Secret Life of Bees" and thoroughly enjoyed it, when I heard a friend had liked another book written by the author I wanted to check it out. In the book, "God's Joyful Surprise," Sue Monk Kidd describes her own personal spiritual journey. I decided to read the book while we were on our trip in Oregon (love those nap drives and early bedtimes!)

It ended up being timely as one of the things she addressed was realizing how focused she had become on tasks and busyness. She realized that she spent so much time hurrying her children along, until she discovered the holiness in taking the time with everyday things.

I spend a whole lot of my time trying to cajole two non-compliant little people into complying with what I think we should do. Granted I am often insisting on non-negotiable items like teeth brushing and holding hands when you cross the street. (In fact, T has started saying, "No, mom, we HAVE to" about everything. Apparently, that is my extremely compelling universal reasoning for things.) But, this week I realized that there are plenty of other times that I am just trying to hurry us along to the next activity. So, I spent the rest of the week trying not to say hurry up to the kids at all, and it ended up being good (though it was not always easy!) 

For example, I really wanted to take the kids down to the beach during our free time before the main session. The kids, however, wanted to stoop down on the drive and pick-up rocks. Lots of rocks. And they wanted to hold them all and have me hold them. Some were named, some were pets, and all were special. So, we just took our time with the rocks rather than the ocean, and that time turned out to be just as fun for them if not more. And, it was a great learning experience (mostly for me).