Just in Time

I was laughing, the other day, with a client mom over my latest purchase for the office… a fan.  We were having a virtual session, when I thought to show it to them.  (The upcoming forecast was grim - and on point - incessant rain and the first freeze of Fall.) Mom chimed in on my purchase, “Just in time!”

Happy Halloween from my son, The Rake. 🤷‍♀️😂. What can I do?!! The kid loves monsters…

I advocated for the purchase and it’s potential winter use, but I was also happy to admit the irony so fitting to my personality.

I have never been on time.  It kind of became a thorn in my side for awhile.  However, I am now content in the fact that I have both faults and eccentricities.  It is a beautiful (sometimes burdensome) part of the package.  And “timeliness” has never been a natural gift of mine.  (But…like old wine, I continue to improve.)

And speaking of wine…making this batch from my own grapes.  I harvested 14 pounds this year!! (I’ve had my eye on these persimmons in our local park for years and finally have the time to try my hand with them.  🙏🏻. Hopeful.  (The jar contains leftover garden seeds I am sprouting for salads.)

I could argue that it is a matter of interpretation.  According to me, I have most often been “right on time” - not a minute wasted.  

Unfortunately, wasted has tended to include tasks of preparedness.    For example, I can recall bolting from my car to my high school with wet hair that, literally froze, in the winter.  (Wait…I STILL tend to show up with wet hair…🤷‍♀️)

In college, I thought my professors were ridiculous when they kept offering “time management” classes.  It’s simple.  Each day has 24 hours, and I need to sleep about 8-10 of them.  The rest you just manage via crisis or creative whim.  

Back then, I had a lot of important and stressful things to do…like sleep until noon, study the Bible and pray (At least there was that!), lay out in the sun, exercise and go out dancing at night.  (It was a challenge to fit it all in.)

You guys…I went to a charity ball!!  (Supporting kids with disabilities, of course. 💕💕). Xander even did my makeup, and I actually fixed my hair!!  😱. Flashback 1999.

The procrastination tendency followed me right into adulthood.  (It took me until a few years ago to realize that while I was waiting to GET in the car until everyone else was in…THEY were waiting on ME to be in the car to come.  🤦‍♀️) 

But it’s not just tardiness…it’s seasonal inappropriateness.  I have habitually struggled with remembering to bring a coat in winter and waters in the summer. I seem unable to even think about holidays until the day of.  No planning.  No preparation.  (I have improved here slightly.  I am already working on Christmas…but I put off Halloween until this weekend, and we were rushing to carve pumpkins yesterday - the day before Halloween!!) 

I have always just thought in terms of right now.  Day to day.  Minute to minute. 

I started Xander’s preschool homeschool in the spring because I was nervous about how I would handle it all with a new baby (instead of just enjoying new baby and starting to plan for homeschool in the Fall.)

And speaking of flashbacks...

I will always prefer the freedom of whim, but I am learning more that planning it out feels good sometimes, too.  

So I think the inherent lesson is in finding the right balance, and that means allowing God to help me prioritize.  I just can’t possibly see all the variables that contribute to the success or failure of each and every one of my big ideas.  And I can’t sort out the human hearts to find the ones that will sync with mine to produce mutual benefits of relationship.  I need the wisdom in His all-knowing, all seeing vision to navigate the when’s, where’s and what’s of how to be Just in Time.

Rare and fleeting moments…

And it turns out, He means what He says about “My burden is easy, and my yoke is light.”  I am finding when I work for Him, the work comes easier and the returns all the sweeter.

I am enjoying the increase in time to be mom and wife and friend and to fulfill the work God gives me…which includes all the varying creative expressions that make the Kristen-life whole and fulfilling.

Making an effort to cherish each one…

I hope you are finding the same for YOU in your happily-ever-after!

Your friend.

Kristen