PWD Goes Tri-Weekly(ish)

“Hang in there; it’s just a season.” For a few years, that was my mantra. 

I was teaching at a small Christian school, and that means (among other wonderful things) being stretched very thin at times. Everyone on staff wears a stack of hats a mile high. Some of my hats included lesson planning, grading, church activities, counseling students, and writing various and sundry documents for the school. But during the second semester of each school year, I got to don one more hat—a big ol’ sombrero plopped right on top of all the other hats. 

I helped direct a large-scale play. 

While I wouldn’t trade those memories of late-night rehearsals, hilarious bloopers, technical difficulties, and opening night jitters for anything, I can also assure you that the process took several years off my life every time.

 It. Was. Busy. 

And when things are busy for me, the first thing to go is usually fitness. Well, fitness and sleep. My co-director friend and I would sit in the off-stage darkness and watch the students rehearse as we chugged coffee and ate animal crackers for dinner…again. We bemoaned our busy schedules that were too jam-packed to fit in a single jog. We commiserated that our pants were starting to feel tight. But then one of us would dutifully remind the other that it was just a season. It wouldn’t last forever. After the final curtain call, we could go jogging again. We could eat real dinners. We could work out as often as we wanted to. 

Man, looking at that written out, the animal-cracker-dinner season doesn’t seem so bad after all. 

But the reminder was still a comfort. Yes, things were busy, but there would come a time when things would slow down again. That’s the rhythm of life—a God-ordained rhythm. Work then rest. Work then rest. Animal crackers then jogging. It’s a cycle. 

So what on earth does this have to do with Past Watchful Dragons? 

Well, if you’re a regular reader (I mean, if you read the blog regularly. It’s fine if you’re abnormal personally.) then you’ve certainly noticed that a more-than-usual amount of time is elapsing between emails from yours truly. At first it was because I had a NICU baby. That was another animal-cracker-dinner season for sure. But now that my baby is home (hallelujah!) I’m finding that things are still pretty busy. The parenthood hat became a whole lot heavier when we added another offspring to the equation. Go figure, right?

So my goal is to post a new article every three weeks. It may even be less often than that, but a tri-weekly post is my goal. And while this does make me feel like I’m reneging on a commitment (something I really dislike), I know this is just a season (something I really believe). 

Solomon (and the Byrds) knew the truth: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). There’s a time for writing and a time for playing. A time for feeling proud of my academic accomplishments and a time for feeling thankful for my parental accomplishments. A time to blog and a time to mom. I’m in the season of mothering right now, and it’s just that—a season. Seasons pass quickly, and I don’t want to waste this precious time. 

So thank you, dear reader, for your patience with me as I savor the season. I promise I’ll post as often as possible. In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy your season of life as well. Whether enjoyable or difficult, it’s just a season. Hang in there.