Find Your Peace

by Michele Boy | June 20, 2024

Rain has fallen in Hamilton County. Always a blessing!!
  We have five weeks till our county fair starts.  In ten days half the year will be over. Anyone else notice time is flying? 
I tell myself the same lie every year - summer will slow down. HA!
  It’s busier and faster. All the projects I have promised myself would be done this summer and all the lists I am trying to check off seem to get longer and less is getting done which is stressing me out a little.
  Camps, sheep shows, harvest, work, get my daughter to this practice or that game. 
Busy busy busy!
And it’s not just me. Every mom I speak with says the same. 
   It’s hard to carve out some me time. I try. I have been taking more walks with my dogs. In fact, I walked/ran a 5K this weekend.  I was tired and proud at the end. Then someone sent me a picture of myself and I was mortified. 
Instead of focusing on my accomplishment and the overall joy in my life, I was focused on how many chins I could see in the picture. lol.
  My publisher and I are working on book cover designs for my book launch which is tentatively July 7.
No guarantees on the date yet. But I will keep you posted.
I am planning an online event and then a couple local events too. 
 Right now I am sifting through four book cover ideas. I had several family and friends look them over. Everyone had different answers and different reasons. 
I think I am more confused than ever.
One friend said to go with my gut. 
The problem is my gut is telling me different things.
I think one will sell better than others, one would cater to a different group than the others. 
Yes, I am overthinking it all. 
  I have noticed when I start overthinking all my peace goes away. I begin to stress more, get more frazzled, and start to misplace items, forget things, and I don’t feel accomplished at the end of the day.
 Adding to the stress, I have to hurry and get this paper out because I am headed to cover a story for next week’s paper.
    Normally I go for a walk in the morning but there was no time today.
   What do you do when it seems like you can’t catch your breath? 
I would say don’t make any big decisions yet. Walk away for a minute. Remember these times won’t last forever.   
 Do you call a friend? Listen to a song? Pray? 
  On Tuesday, I was sitting in front of my computer refreshing the browser over and over again, waiting for something that was supposed to be there but wasn’t. In fact there were two or three things expected to come in and they weren’t there yet.
  Finally, I got up and went with my daughter to the sheep barn. Stepping outside was magical. 
Getting away from the computer was exactly what I needed.
  After finding my peace, I checked my email on my cell phone. 
Not only the thing I had waited for  came in but ALL the things I had been expecting later were in early. 
  When we came home, I got right to work and things flowed smoothly. 
  When do you push through? When do you take a few minutes to walk away? 
  I guess the point is find your peace.  I would say I can find my peace at a beach house on vacation but that isn’t going to happen for quite some time. 
So how do you find your peace where you are at?
  Maybe the first thing to do is stop, to praise God for some wonderful things in your life, and for getting you through difficult times.
 Breathe. Quiet yourself. Remember no good decisions came under duress. 
Remember this won’t last forever. One day I won’t be rushing from here to there and to be honest that scares me. 
As crazy as this time in my life is, I love being of purpose, giving to my family, and helping. 
 But...I do need a little me time. Hopefully that will come soon. I would take a couple hours of responsibility free time. 
 And maybe it’s time to boldly pray Romans 15:13 (NIV) - May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  Do you do that? Do you pray boldly? Or do we whimper out a - please don’t let this happen?
 I am guilty of whimpers for prayers. So right now I am acknowledging that and praying boldly for me and for all those that read this. 
Be blessed!!