Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Margin.


  I decided a long time ago to never apologize for taking blogging breaks, planned or unplanned. I think it is so silly and unnecessary for anyone to ever apologize for living life offline. Isn't that way more important that filling up someone's blogroll? 
  Either way, I have been itching to blog lately. Lots and lots to say (Fall favorites! recipes! Thanksgiving! Florida! Christmas!), but I have just found myself in a season of real, true fullness lately. I keep teetering between soaking it up and feeling pretty overwhelmed. I have such a love hate relationship with full seasons like this one. I love the quality time and fun adventures, but I long for quiet and slow and slightly boring. My introvert self sometimes has to muscle through it, because these seasons have a purpose. And an ending!
  All that to say, I'm really looking for margin these days. Time celebrating birthdays, family football outings, holiday get togethers, and our upcoming trip to NYC are too wonderful to be cancelled. But they have serious potential to overwhelm me this year. So instead, I'm leaning towards less fuss with Christmas decorations. Nixing plans to bake up a storm and mail out Christmas goodies to friends far away. Giving myself grace to skip workouts and to put off adding that extra coffee date I've been meaning to get on the calendar. And time, every single day, to remember this Advent season. Because, gosh, if there is one reason to celebrate right now, it is Christ's birth. And man, does that center me and take away those anxious thoughts of 'when will I get to bed tonight and how will I find time to buy that last gift?' 
  In every season, making room for margin is important to me. But there is just something about life right now that has been really, really needing and searching for it. Ever feel that way? What are some things you do to keep sane in busy seasons?

2 comments:

Chelsea E. said...

Can I just say how proud of you I am for scaling back on decorations, etc? I feel so overwhelmed by the holidays every year. We decided to skip decorations, etc. this year, and it's such a relief. Just minimizing for once has been such a good feeling. I hope doing so allows you to enjoy the holidays a bit more!

Kailey said...

Okay there is SUCH a fine line between enjoying the season and being overwhelmed, I totally feel it too! I'm still figuring out how to stay sane, especially as a college student with a huge wall of final exams in my way before Christmas. It's hard to fully enjoy life without procrastinating ;)