Sunday Morning

"Every moment can be a fresh beginning."

-Frank Laubach

I awake to a deep periwinkle sky with a creamy half-moon nestled in the bare branches above my window. Green leaves have started weaving their way across the floor of the brown woods. The birds have begun their spring songs. I can hear them. With a warm robe around my shoulders, I shuffle into the kitchen for coffee. I think about how beautiful the morning is, quiet, fresh, and full of promise. The room feels soft and warm like an embrace as I think over my family, my home, our life together, and how my perspective has changed with the passage of time.

I have been writing to you about how joy matters. I know this can seem like silly nostalgia when you are faced with too much to do, demanding children, pressing problems to solve. Daily concerns focus on mundane matters like getting the laundry done, checking yesterday's schoolwork, and settling a dispute over who gets the last waffle. But the greater truth is, we need joy. It's the way we're made. The things that have to get done are only that -- things that get done. They do not nourish a life. That's why, even after they are done, an emptiness seeps in. We are made for more.

There were times when I forgot what I knew about living well. I got lost in the things that needed to get done. I despaired over the messiness; I became exhausted with the demands; I crept into a tunnel that blocked my view of the big picture. There were days, months, even years when I lost the vision. But I found grace enough in the forgiving arms of my children for us to begin again.

You will, too. That's the best advice I can give you. When you lose your way, begin again. On mornings like this, when the sky is a deep periwinkle with a creamy moon in the trees, fresh and full of promise, remember.

Remember why you are doing this, how you love your children, what matters most.

Know that there will be frustrations, disappointments, moments when quitting seems like the only sane thing to do. There will be people who shake their heads at you, and you'll feel foolish for believing that you can do this. All of it is part of the process. We find the life of joy by trial and error, by steady effort.

We need to encourage one another and talk about how to build a life of joy.

I hope you'll join us.