Flexibility: A Component of Balance
Tuesday was my younger son’s final day of Spring Break. After all of the snow days this winter and his older brother’s Spring Break a few weeks ago, to say that his 11-day Spring Break felt very long would be an understatement. But on Tuesday morning the two of us had a wonderful time together that reminded me of the importance of flexibility.
You see, while we had shared some wonderful one-on-one time over the Break that I was very grateful for, I was starting to get antsy to get back to my regular routine. My to-do list had grown incredibly long and I was starting to slip back into “super productive” mode, planning all of the things that I would get done once he was back in school. So on Tuesday morning, after we dropped my older son off at school, I started sharing our “fun” morning plans with my little one in my peppiest voice. “You get to choose what we do first! Would you like to go and get plants for the garden or would you like to go food shopping?” His response? “But, Mama, it is my last day of Spring Break. Can we go to a playground?” Luckily, at that moment I really heard him and decided it was time to be flexible. He was right! It was his last day of vacation. He deserved to enjoy it. So off to a nearby playground we went. And it was wonderful. He got my undivided attention as we played together running around the climbing structure and tossing sticks into the nearby lake. And as we walked across a field, he reached up, grabbed my hand, and said, “Mama, this is a really fun morning.”
That night, as I looked back on the day, I realized that that moment of flexibility on my part was key. We are always going to be busy. We are always going to have that to do list. It is never all going to get done. So instead, why not allow for those moments of flexibility from time to time. Sure your plants may not get planted and the pantry may be a bit bare for an extra day, but opening up to and welcoming those fun moments with family, friends, and community, those are the things that bring us joy and make us happy. It is those moments that help to bring balance back into our lives.