If Parenting is an Exhale, When Do You Inhale?
How co-parenting helps me embrace the rhythms of life
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Depending on your religious beliefs, life may or may not be a one-way ticket with a clear beginning and end. But one thing that’s clear is that while we’re living this lifetime on this planet, life ebbs and flows in a cyclical nature, just like in the rest of nature. (Despite all evidence to the contrary, we are, in fact, just another part of nature, like the squirrels in the trees, the sun in the sky, and the soil beneath our feet.)
I don’t believe that there will ever be the perfect “work-life balance” that so many strive for. I don’t believe that the industrial model of cookie-cutter hours that form cookie cutter days that form cookie cutter weeks and years and months and decades is either healthy or sustainable. What I have found to be a much more enjoyable, forgiving, realistic and sustainable model is to embrace the seasons, phases and cycles of life…
The waxing and the waning of the moon. The rising and falling of the tides. The seasons of the year. The in breath and the out breath…
What I am particularly aware of right now is the shift that has taken place for me in the past 48 hours since my kids were picked up by their Dad. This ends nearly two months of having them full time and today was the first time in as long that I have actually meditated. Because — it turns out — I actually do enjoy meditating and feel nourished by doing it, but I find that the degree of commitment that it takes to do it while full-time parenting is more than I want to take on. And yet, the minute I wake up to a quiet house with some space to myself, it feels so easy and natural to start my day that way.
I had forgotten that. That’s why I’ve gotten down on myself a bit for not having meditated more consistently of late, especially with the many mechanical issues we’ve been having since becoming full-time RVers. I feel like things would flow better if I did my fifteen minutes of meditation every day. But I didn’t. I almost couldn’t. So it was a relief to me to find out that as soon as the circumstances changed, it was easy to get back into that practice.
Similarly, today has been one of the most productive work days I have had in months. I reached…
