Thursday, May 07, 2015

Dreamy Slow Sunday


Written on a Sunday afternoon while sitting on the porch swing.

I can't seem to get enough of the outdoors lately which is surprising me because I don't like bugs or heat. Mercifully, with cooperative weather, our porch as beckoned me morning, noon and night and it has been feeding my soul to spend so much time in nature.

This afternoon, I took E, R, and S to a nearby neighborhood while David napped. We started out walking and walked towards the playground where they played for a few minutes.


We began our walk back through the Community Garden and along a row of town houses. We walked back to where we started and they played on the pirate ship. I grabbed a library book out of the car.

Their play was sort of hard in getting going and I began to wonder if we should even keep trying. But somewhere in the middle, I realized we were all in "the zone." Each child was involved in their own magic.



Emily was reading a book. Samuel had two sticks and a pile of rocks and in sort of Foosball fashion,  he was trying to get the rocks into the hole in the middle of the table {for an umbrella}. Rachel was alternately doing cartwheels in an open grassy area, running her hand around the trunk of a tree as she walked around it and playing in a water puddle.

It was glorious.

The kind of moment where you stop everything and just look around holding your breath afraid it will be over. I took a deep breath and after a lovely, long, slow exhale - looked up to the blue of the sky, the breeze blowing through the trees {and keeping the bugs away}, the white wisps of clouds reflecting the light.



I spot a ladybug. We stayed for three hours - my heart was waking up and feeling free. I was dreaming ...

God knew this timing and setting would be perfect for me to read Annie Downs' book Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have.

I devoured the first half just this afternoon sitting in my quiet, semi-sunny spot smelling the heady scent of the blooming Carolina Jasmine. I inhaled the first half of the book and my heart felt light as if it were with a friend. She was hitting me where I needed it today in the gentlest yet firmest way.

What is that dream deep in your heart that just won't go away? Is it from God? Should you do something about it? These were the questions I began pondering today - well not began really, I've been pondering them. But they were making my heart beat fast in a God-is-at-work kind of way.










This opportunity to slow down and just relax together was such a gift. It probably seems like all I do is slow, yet we are plenty busy and looking for ways to weave the beauty of slow into the normal tapestry of our days. It is always a gift and always worth it.

5 comments:

Shelby said...

Looks so relaxing and peaceful Monica. Love the pictures.

Unknown said...

Absolutely beautiful! I'll have to get the book! Christina

Amber said...

Beautiful photos! And that book sounds very intriguing! I will be looking it up!

Mom said...

Lovely! I can just picture this neighborhood - and it was a gorgeous day. :) So glad you had this time together...

~a homemaker said...

I wanted to say, "Happy Mother's Day!" May your day be filled with joy as you celebrate with your gifted blessings.

Relax and enjoy!