Hurry

To talk about what you enjoy about them is to talk about what you see in them as a person, and what makes you like them as a person.

I invite you to take some time over the weekend to not hurry.

Maybe to not hurry feels to some like a luxury, or to some like laziness.

Hurry is the pace of the world. But it is not a pace which cultivates delight and enjoyment.

I can’t enjoy popcorn whilst standing at the kitchen counter preparing food. I can’t delight in a walk if I am only there to get it over and done with.

It is important we take time to enjoy our children and to delight in who they are. We can’t do that when we are in a hurry. When we hurry, we lose awareness and we don’t notice. We may gloss over our children, “Well, they’re still alive, everything must be fine.”

But, to really, really notice, one has to not hurry. Take time to observe, watch your child doing what they’re doing, give them a warm smile when they look at you and say “What?” by way of asking why you’re being so still, looking and smiling. Tell them about what you enjoy about them.

To tell them you love them is great, yes. But to talk about what you enjoy about them is to talk about what you see in them as a person, and what makes you like them as a person. They learn that they are worthy of being enjoyed and delighted in and a really solid sense of self starts to be established.

“Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missing things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing…. Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away. “

Ann Voscamp.