Reorienting to Rhythm

It seems having babies grounds and centers me.  I didn't always see that as a good thing.  It took a few babies for that lesson to begin to sink in, to see the 40 days the church gives us to rest as a time to draw in and settle, to see the the first years as a time to be home, to allow that new little one to be a reason to let go of some burdens of responsibility that lie outside the home and family.  Those who know me will never say that I do that to the degree that I should.  But I try.  After Dimples was born, I think we found a rhythm of life that seemed to suit us well.  We lived that path for a few years, and they were beautiful years.  Then some things entered into my life that began to demand intense amounts of time.  I let those things pull at me, because they are good things.  But I lost our rhythm.  The bare bones were still there, but too many things stretched me out.  Now, a new little one demands that we pull in, that I find my center once again; that I might not be pulled to pieces, not find myself living in Zerrissenheit.  The cold winter days are such a good time to contemplate new (old) patterns, and the past weeks of icy cold have been a time of thought and evaluation.  Seeking inspiration, I found a lovely little online course, Living Curriculum: Celebrate the Rhythm, that caught my attention, so I took a chance and enrolled for March.  Some of it is just a reminder of things I have forgotten or laid aside, some of it is new insight, some of it we do on a daily basis and all of it is an encouragement to me - a friend holding my hand for a few weeks to bring me back.  The yearly rhythm is perhaps the one I kept hold of the best, so I will work from my strength, and move in to find a new pattern to the weekly and the daily.

My visual interpretation of the yearly rhythm using liturgical colors of the seasons.