This article below captured my attention and I could relate to it on so many levels and the timing of it had me reflecting on what has already been on my mind for a while.
Life for the last couple of decades has been being a single mom raising my daughters doing my best to provide for them and me. We had a good life, but it wasn't easy. Balancing always working full-time, maintaining a home and yard on my own, being young and single, living paycheck to paycheck to hold life together, and always working and stretching paychecks to make ends meet. Both my daughters lost their dads tragically, and in those years I had to help hold everything together when my own heart and dreams were shattered time and time and time again. Most of the time I didn't know how I was going to keep the pieces together, but God always provided.
When I sold my home and Brooke moved out I found myself as an empty nester needing more healing than I realized I needed.
I found comfort in my beautiful, perfectly clean and highly organized apartment.
I found security in my bank account. I found peace in the quiet of a drama-free home with not having another's emotions needing anything from me.
Shutting out the white noise of life and keeping warm by my fireplace, I nestled in for the winter and found enjoyment in cooking new recipes and dishes that only I like and craving the solitude.
I gave myself a free-pass and didn't feel guilty for enjoying the snacks I wanted to eat that I found comfort in during my time of rest and healing.
The same God who provided for me through decades of being a single mom doing my absolute very best is the same God who provided a beautiful and perfect oasis for needed healing. I know it was Him, because I couldn't have planned this this perfectly.
This is a season that I am grateful for and I am so glad I didn't miss it being in the throes of a relationship. Taking a dating sabbatical was a critical piece of this process for so many reasons.
Like this article, I'm not mad at myself for gaining weight. I'm not mad at myself for needing rest and healing. I gave myself grace and did what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it because I could.
There is a season for giving yourself a free-pass and a season for stepping out into a better and healthier new normal. I have healed well because I gave myself time to do so and God has been close blessing me the entire time.
Spring is here and I am ready to come out of hibernation. Life is different because everything in my life is different now, but mostly because I have changed the most in my mind. I see things very differently and I want things differently.
To those who allow themselves a season for Oreos, I applaud you. Give yourself grace and be kind to yourself. To a season of Oreos and a season for jogging, cheers!
There's a season for Oreos and a season for jogging.Can I be honest?
Ever since my breast reduction, my cancer diagnosis, my husband accepting a new job, packing up the house to move, staying six months and moving right back…
I have not wanted to run an inch.
The truth is, I haven’t even wanted to move.
Mind, body, and spirit were not here for it. I simply didn’t have the reserves.
So for the last several months, I lounged on the couch, indulging a steady diet of fried food and Oreos. I binge watched TV shows. I FaceTimed friends. I read 4 books.
To be honest, I disappeared from the normal world.
And for a season, it was glorious.
But this week at church, my ADD got away from me and I found myself googling Bible verses instead of listening to what the actual pastor was teaching.
I mean, at least I wasn’t on Facebook.
(Sorry, Jesus.)
Anyways, I stumbled across a scripture. It talked about how there are seasons for all different things.
It is a powerful scripture—very Lion King a la “Circle of Life”.
And after reading it, a thought popped in my head. It was rogue and unexpected, and it felt divinely inspired:
“I want to go for a run.”
Just like that, my season of rest was over.
Tonight, I had to dig out some extra large running shorts. That was a little bit of a bummer. But the Oreos and resting cost me a few pounds, and it was a price that I needed to pay.
I stretched in my driveway, I turned my music up loud, and I stepped out into the afternoon rain.
I smiled.
Then, I slowly chugged forward.
I am not mad at myself for gaining weight. I am not mad at myself for being paralyzed, needing rest, and getting my mental health in order.
I cannot resent the choices I’ve made over the last four months with the cards that life has given me. I did my best, and it was a hard freaking season.
That’s what we are all doing, isn’t it?
Trying our hardest with what we’ve been given?
I want y’all to know that there will be seasons in life when you will wear medium jogging shorts. When you will choose the salad, and parent your children gently and intentionally, and all in all, you will kick butt at life.
But there will also be seasons in life when you need to wear pajamas, sit under blankets, and wonder how you will ever get through it all.
Seasons when you lose your temper at your toddlers and feel like a yucky human being, and maybe need a pill and a therapist to keep above water.
Sometimes your outward stressors will overwhelm your inner strength, and you’ll be tired.
But that does not make you weak.
It does not make you a failure.
And it does NOT make you unlovable.
Believe me, friends, when I tell you that there will be seasons again, when you pull up those extra large running shorts, step out into the rain, and reclaim some semblance of the normal life you once had.
Give yourself some time. Give yourself some grace. Because the truth is that throughout every single season, you are still YOU.
You are strong.
You are worthy of love.
And you are doing the best you can.
Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others.
You never know which season of life they are in.
#ASeasonForLaughingAndASeasonForCrying
#ASeasonForOreosAndASeasonForJogging
I have not wanted to run an inch.
The truth is, I haven’t even wanted to move.
Mind, body, and spirit were not here for it. I simply didn’t have the reserves.
So for the last several months, I lounged on the couch, indulging a steady diet of fried food and Oreos. I binge watched TV shows. I FaceTimed friends. I read 4 books.
To be honest, I disappeared from the normal world.
And for a season, it was glorious.
But this week at church, my ADD got away from me and I found myself googling Bible verses instead of listening to what the actual pastor was teaching.
I mean, at least I wasn’t on Facebook.
(Sorry, Jesus.)
Anyways, I stumbled across a scripture. It talked about how there are seasons for all different things.
It is a powerful scripture—very Lion King a la “Circle of Life”.
And after reading it, a thought popped in my head. It was rogue and unexpected, and it felt divinely inspired:
“I want to go for a run.”
Just like that, my season of rest was over.
Tonight, I had to dig out some extra large running shorts. That was a little bit of a bummer. But the Oreos and resting cost me a few pounds, and it was a price that I needed to pay.
I stretched in my driveway, I turned my music up loud, and I stepped out into the afternoon rain.
I smiled.
Then, I slowly chugged forward.
I am not mad at myself for gaining weight. I am not mad at myself for being paralyzed, needing rest, and getting my mental health in order.
I cannot resent the choices I’ve made over the last four months with the cards that life has given me. I did my best, and it was a hard freaking season.
That’s what we are all doing, isn’t it?
Trying our hardest with what we’ve been given?
I want y’all to know that there will be seasons in life when you will wear medium jogging shorts. When you will choose the salad, and parent your children gently and intentionally, and all in all, you will kick butt at life.
But there will also be seasons in life when you need to wear pajamas, sit under blankets, and wonder how you will ever get through it all.
Seasons when you lose your temper at your toddlers and feel like a yucky human being, and maybe need a pill and a therapist to keep above water.
Sometimes your outward stressors will overwhelm your inner strength, and you’ll be tired.
But that does not make you weak.
It does not make you a failure.
And it does NOT make you unlovable.
Believe me, friends, when I tell you that there will be seasons again, when you pull up those extra large running shorts, step out into the rain, and reclaim some semblance of the normal life you once had.
Give yourself some time. Give yourself some grace. Because the truth is that throughout every single season, you are still YOU.
You are strong.
You are worthy of love.
And you are doing the best you can.
Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others.
You never know which season of life they are in.
#ASeasonForLaughingAndASeasonForCrying
#ASeasonForOreosAndASeasonForJogging
