rhythm

Rhythm...we were made for it. We are made OUT of it. Think of our heartbeat. Our breathing. A woman's fertility. And its not just us...the whole world was made out of rhythm, we are surrounded by it. The seasons. The waxing and waning of the moon. The circle of day and night. I could go on and on. No one can deny that God made this world, and us, out of rhythm. (Well, I suppose you could deny the God part, but that is neither here nor there.)

But in our "advanced" culture we have lost our rhythm. We have electric lighting that allows us to bring our days waaay into night, we have electric heating to help us ignore the presence of winter and air conditioning for the heat of summer. We have 24 hour supermarkets that fill shelf after shelf with avacados and strawberries flown from who knows where, no matter what time of year.

I will suggest (most humbly) that in all this conveneince we have lost something important. Perhaps something vital.

Rhythm, and its significance, is something I never really thought about until I had kids. But the more I learn about it, the more I experience our life with and without it, the bigger a believer I am.

The biggest, and most obvious difference I see, is how much calmer everything is when we are in a rhythm. I know exactly what our day is going to look like. More importantly Zeke knows. As a child with no sense of time whatsoever, and very little control over his own life, this is priceless. There are no fights to take his nap, because we have ALWAYS taken our nap after lunch. Its not a choice because its the way it has always been.

Sleeping and eating are obviously the most important things, but I honestly see merit in adding even more to your daily rhythm. When do you do chores? When do you get out of the house? When is the time for play? When is the time for quiet?

My goal, lately, has been working on a new rhythm that better encorperates Malachi's needs and my new (and somewhat lesser) abilities as a mother of two. Rhythm has to change with your needs, after all. And even, I've found, with the seasons. We are outside more in the spring and summer, and alwasy always busy. Its a time of outward energy and its important to schedule in breaks to be quiet. In the winter, however, we are inside much more, and life is calmer. It's a time of inward concentration and its more important for me to be mindful of scheduling active things for us to do.

Its a process and I am still learning. It's a balancing act between the comfort and the ease of the familiar (so important for the very young child) and the ability to understand your needs for THAT MOMENT and "go with the flow" (also necessary with a very young child).