There is a time...

I woke this morning with a mild headache due to disrupted sleep and quite honestly a late-night glass of wine that I didn’t really need. My habits tried desperately to pull me to my phone that was charging at my bedside… it’s almost as if the sunrise brought with it whispers from the night’s worry and the wonder of what today will bring:
“Pick up your phone… check the news.”
“Has the governor changed her mind?”
”Will businesses stay open”
“Has there been another positive case? or worse, another death”

Somehow, through the whispers of fear, I managed to maintain my newly established routine of meditation and reading before social media. I started the coffee and wandered back to light a few candles before opening my kindle to today’s lenten devotion.
Instead of my typical READ, PRAY, DONE routine, today looked more like this:

Read, think about the kids…
read, should I call Jeff?… READ, gosh- why can’t I focus?…
read, I did it!… wait, I don’t have a clue what I read…
RE-read, breathe. read again… think, hold it. what does it mean for today?
Pray.

I’ve been married now for 25 years and Jeff and I have fallen into a bit of a spring break routine~ he travels somewhere for a couple of days of golf and I settle into stay-cation mode.
I love the opportunity to make selfish choices… silence or a sappy movie? Stay up til 3:00 reading a great book or sleep in until noon? Chicken or popcorn for dinner??
I also typically tackle a project that will turn the whole house into a momentary war zone- using ALL of the wide-open spaces to sort, stack and organize one single room of the house (I’d show pictures- but I’d hate for you to see the incredible amount of stuff that was once crammed into my guestroom-turned-office space).
I love these attack and conquer projects because I inevitably find something I purchased and then forgot about in the midst of organizing my chaos. Such was the case this morning as I sat down for the first time in my battered old comfy flowered chair, in my now-clean office, to read…

I finished with my devotions and reached for my coffee, noticing a journal I purchased months ago. Instead of ignoring it in favor of my latest fictional get-away, I slid it out of its place on the bookshelf and opened it to the first page.
TODAY IS: Monday, March 16, 2020 (bold-journal, italics-mine)
I’M GRATEFUL FOR: my faith, my family & my friends
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: read… re-read…focus. what is it saying? pray.
How interesting that these would be the words given to me today:
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…”
Our country will likely shut down today in response to Covid-19 and my thoughts all morning have been about my role during this time.
I’ve decided that this is my time for:

faith
love
calm
care
donation
sacrifice
attention
and above all prayer-full joy

What time is it for you?

Wishing you a day filled with hope, love and the opportunity to be happy.

~Kim