It's the Labour Day Holiday Monday and we are here, home in the city, and I am really very fine with that.
There are a number of reasons Ken and I normally opt out of staying at the cottage over this weekend, noise and traffic being just two of them. But if I think about it, the best part of this weekend for me every year is the chance it gives me to get my house in order.
By 'house', I don't just mean our physical home, but that's part of it. It's more or less that sense that a new season of work is about to begin, and here's the chance to put everything in place - on the calendar, on my desk and workspace, on the bookshelves and files, in the closets (especially the sock drawer), in the kitchen, out on the porch - and basically anywhere where I will be working and living and moving. If it's in place and in order now, not only am I better set up for success in anything that's on the books, but I am also better able to handle all the unexpected and incidentals that will no doubt and almost immediately require some time and attention.
While I am a summer girl through and through, I love September for this.
It's like a bit of a reset for the season ahead, that time between summers when 'regular life' and 'regular schedules' set the tone and rhythm of all the good work we get to do.
So all weekend that's been my unhurried, non-anxious focus. And today I get to just finish it all up, straighten out all the last little things, and then get ready for a very casual meal together with friends at the end of the day.
"Unhurried and non-anxious" has been a lovely theme for me over the summer months. While there was significant loss, I also had the time and space to grieve and rest and think and write and kayak and gather blueberries. And be Gramma. And it was healing and revealing.
A word, a concept, a theme that's repeatedly come up in the journaling and prayer times is "Enough."
This seems to me to be related to a few layers of nuance.
One, it is a descriptor of my inner self right now. Here at the beginning of a new season, I am replenished, restored, rested, I do not have a sense of neediness in my spirit. What I have is 'enough' and then some. I am over the top grateful for this, as I can't recall feeling this content for a very very long time. Past journals (which I brought with me to reflect on over the summer) confirm this.
But the other nuance, and this is more related to Labour Day and my approach to work, has more to do with the lovely responsibilities I have been given at this point in my life, my life's work, and a sense that loving and serving our children in Thailand is more than 'enough' for me to be doing right now. I experience what the psalmist expresses in probably the most well known of the psalms, chapter 23: "My cup overflows."
Beyond that, there is more to unpack from all of this. To protect my "Enough" there will need to be some "nos", and some good discernment to go with. And my tendency to overwork for all the wrong reasons is still part of my wiring. But in my own spiritual formation, as I regularly submit all the ways I do not reflect the Jesus I say I follow to the Spirit's work in me, there is a movement on this, I think. I hope.
Today I am thinking of all the teachers, students, parents getting ready for a new season of school.
I am thinking of all the pastors and ministry leaders getting ready for a new season of serving.
I am thinking of everyone whose summer was anything but restful, and are heading into the next few weeks feeling anything but ready, and I am praying for you. I've had those seasons too. They're brutal and pressing and shows us what we're made of and how sufficient our God is.
Strength and peace to you to all.
