How will you frame that?

It’s a busy season at the Perch, my Dh’s role at work is accelerated, there are extra activities to attend, gifts to buy and time just seems to fly by.  Christmas and Hanukkah have so many emotions attached to them for many people. The financial aspect blows many families up this entire season, many have not recovered from Thanksgiving spending yet and now are faced with the deluge of  commercialism and “gotta have’s to be enough” marketing. The ongoing fight  at our home is keeping our minds on our own values, not the ones brands try to share with us.  Peace, love, contentment, leaning into family, taking time to be respectful of each person before us. My husband loves to use his iphone camera to catch us “doing life”…no poses, no stills, simple, daily action pictures.  They are very very revealing.   Our daughter who is eighteen is often captured laughing, thoughtfully working on art, or quietly attending one of her many pets.  My own well, they are less serene and more directed. I am often caught “doing” busy at this or that and the look on my face is concentration or focused, and less often than I’d like laughing, joy filled, or smiling as I work.

My to-do list has been the “get it done” part of my world at home. Whether it is picking up our home or making the bed.  I’ve not been framing my life with gratitude for the things I do at home for the home.  There is a quote I appreciate “Work of the Home is Love Made Visible” Well, if that’s true, my family may be loveless this week. 🙂 This week my heart has reminded me that I choose to do things that matter to others. That means at home I choose to be disciplined about having dinner prepared or picked up so we can slow down a moment together most nights. It means that because my husband likes to do his own laundry, I have the washer empty at the time he prefers.  It means that when my daughter asks me to “come see” her latest painting, I get up and go …not hum or haw around because I was in the middle of something else.

This Christmas, I am working on thinking about the memory my actions or reactions will frame in the hearts before me. In the end buying this or that is nice, or fun, but the important part of giving to me is in my daily life…taking time to notice, to engage kindly, to appreciate…and I hope that my actions will help others frame a better day to remember.