I have found a rare treat for myself today - the opportunity to read a book in a few moments of silence. An even rarer treat is the gratification of writing about it.
As a stay at home father of three young children, my days are often filled with running water and giggles. There was a time that I bemoaned the responsibility and wished it upon another. Nowadays, I find myself being more grateful than I imagned I could be.
The inspiration for such a day is coupled with a holiday with our family and a sleeping infant upstairs. At first I thought I would take such an occasion to step into the financial world where I work. Yet, my wanting to do something was overtaken by a need to find beauty in the moment.
Few things can enamor us and call us home as beauty. Even when the cries of bills and basic needs are pressing into our purview the need for beauty sits quietly and unwavering in the corner of our soul. It calls us to remember that temporal was not meant to be a tempest - it is meant to be a teacher. It is meant to point us and guide as a lighthouse in our storm. We do not wish a storm on anyone but we know their storm and ours are necessary for the strength that lies within.
How can one know what they are made of if there is no challenge to test it? How can we see the strength of our sword if we do not smash it into the anvil with life’s hammer?
Today, I am sobered by writing. I am humbled by the yearning of beauty to have its day and let it show me once again that the eternal in me has its place in the world. Amidst the duties of parenting and seeming monotony of sunrises and sunsets, there is a child within that squeals do it again.
There is a beauty to behold in each day that I would miss if I were looking for something else. And where my attention goes my reality will follow. So, while pausing has its place and busyness keeps its pace - I look at each one and say you are good. For to call one bad is to curdmudgeon a perfectly good playdate. And to call life anything other than play is to forget that God does not call us His adults but His children. And I for one do not wish to grow old but to be an everlasting light dancing across the waves.
Picture is my own.
