Too Busy Living

June 15, 2011

If you've read my blog for a while (or even if you're fairly new and have read my about page) you know I love to write about homeschooling, making a home, nourishing my family, appreciating everyday beauty, adventurous and creative living.

There are some weeks or months that are so full of the goodness of that living (along with some challenges) that I just don't have time to write about the living. At least not in the depth I would like.  

I know I am not alone in this. We all have seasons of life that are bursting at the seams with energy and activity, summer is that time of year for many of us. And those of us who like to write about our lives are always faced with the challenge of balancing our time between actually living and writing about the living.

Here are a few things I am so busy living that I just don't have the time to write about:

• Spreading a feast before my children and watching them flourish in our new homeschool routine. The kids are ready for and need a more structured curriculum and I've spent a lot of time reading reviews, researching resources and material that will fill this need and be inline with our educational philosophies. 
• Celine's transition from child to young adult. Oh yes, we've definitely now arrived at this very exciting time (I mean that, I'm not being sarcastic) in our family's life. Notice I said transition. We're in a stage of flux both in life circumstance and family dynamic. My response? Lots of communication, reading and prayer.

• Our weekly family adventures and our plans for some bigger trips this summer, including the one we've leaving for in just few hours. Check out this post I wrote for AdventureinProgress. The coast here in Nova Scotia is just so beautiful. 
• Trips to the beach, market, and library. Discovering all things good and local to the area my parent's live and making community connections.

• Our dietary boot camp or hitting the reset button on our eating (long overdue after months of moving "backsliding") that has me in the kitchen often cooking healthy, healing and delicious meals for my family.

I am writing these days. Content for here (as this post proves) and other writing commitments - something new and exciting in the works from Heather at Beauty That Moves (stay tuned). 

But ya' know, a mama only has so much time in the day to write. She is a mama first after all!

I'm too busy living my life to write about living my life. 

Months ago I took some time to evaluate and reflect on the kind of writing I wanted most to do. This was in part motivated from insecurities about the prolific quantity of writing (blogs, ebooks, print books etc.) some mama writers manage to squeeze out of their days.

During that time of reflection and soul searching I wrote a little manifesto. Now seems like a good time to share it: 

The quality of my written work (my "professional" work), this work I share with the world, flows out of and is dependent on the quality of my lived life. My lived life is the reality I share with family and friends, my relationships with people and nature. 

This is the authentic I seek - where the values I write are the values I live.

I realize the above is probably full of grammatical errors. Like, what's a lived life?

Well, for me it's the life I actually live. To be sure my lived life includes writing. It's scheduled in there everyday. But it's just a small portion of my days. My days are mostly for living - learning, cooking, adventuring. Being with my family.

I wish I could give a voice to all those mamas out there who are busy living lives with intention. Simplicity, adventure, service, homemaking, homeschooling - whatever their thing or things happen to be I know many people live incredibly inspirational lives and don't write about it.

Many of you who visit here fit into that category. Through the comments you've left and the e-mails we've exchanged I know you too live according to your values. The thoughts, stories and experiences you've shared have inspired me. 

Damien published a post recently about inspirational living. He argues the inspiration is in the living of your values, not just talking about your values. Ideas on their own are meaningless without action.

I seek inspirational living (my own included - I want to be inspired and challenged by my choices) more than inspirational writing. Though you can be sure I love the written word - books, blogs, articles, magazines - as much as anyone. My RSS feed and stack of books I'm reading can attest to this.

But if I'm going to write about homeschooling, being in nature, healthy eating, and everything else I cycle through on this blog I better be actually doing it (or at least be honest about when I'm not). Because the point for me is to live those things with beauty and intention, not just write about those things. 

So right now I'm living those things.

I'm also learning how to creatively manage our family schedule so I can do both the living and writing (that elusive, happy equilibrium). But it's definitely a season of mostly living. 

What are you so busy living that you wish you had time to write about?

Or maybe you privately journal or scrapbook your family's story.

How do you make time for the living and the telling?

PS. While I was getting ready to publish this post I read Tsh's timely Living A Good Story in the Chaos. Great inspiration for living your live's story.