As I went to write my weekly reflection in my planner, I flipped back to the month view wondering whether I had ever filled out February. It has been a busy week and February is such a short month, I didn’t want to forget to look ahead. As I flipped back, I realized not only had I never filled out February, but I had never filled out January.
As I took a minute to remember, I realized there was no way to plan ahead in January. With the surge of another wave of the pandemic and our three-year-old’s birthday and starting a new preschool with a quarantine and a couple of snow days thrown in, each day was filled. There was no way to plan ahead because we were living each day and surviving each day.
It would be nice if we could predict what the month ahead looks like (and goodness knows I try with my teacher planner training), but sometimes life comes at us in such a way that we have to slow down to concentrate on just taking the next step. Even when we try to plan ahead, something comes up and interrupts our plans.
These times it feels like we’re still loading. We don’t ever get our feet up under us. We don’t really know what we are doing from day to day because we just have to see if the day loads the way we thought it would. In this still loading seasons, it reminds us to slow down and be grateful for what we have. It brings our attention to sacred ordinary when we so often rush by those divine whispers.
While I am glad to turn the page to a new month (and actually have time to plan a bit), I am also glad for the reminder to slow down and look at the ways God’s provisions surround us.