Crown and Bough

Wednesday 11 January 2017

Striking a Balance



Being a parent to small children entails a kind of spiritual tiredness no one could have warned me about.  It would be taxing on a good day to have autonomous human beings utterly dependent on you for every aspect of their existence without them cheerfully endangering that existence at every turn.  I've never met any other kind of species which required so much active intervention to keep alive.  Refuse to wear clothing 30 degree weather?  Sounds luxurious!  Eat this soap/rock/foam/styrofoam/stick/mysterious plastic object?  Delicious!  Step out of a moving vehicle?  Don't mind if I do!



I've been thinking lately--usually when I'm walking to and from places, that's the only time my mind is ever really free, though my limbs are occupied--about striking a balance between being kind to myself and holding myself to higher standards.  Like, when do you know that you've given all you can give and when do you know that you can be stretched, the way God sees into your heart and says, "You can do better"?

It helps to have a community that can be honest with you, the way a mirror is honest, without personal feelings coloring the reflection, but with the unique human attribute of being invested in you for your own sake, because they love you and care about you.  If you can find a community like that, you've found the eighth wonder of the world.

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