Pressures – a cooking pot and twisted tales

My Stream of Consciousness Saturday comes out late because I had a brainwave yesterday and indulged in something that’s almost become a novelty for me.

I shut down my systems completely throughout yesterday, took a novel and my mat to the park with my children where I read, dozed off to sleep to the tweet of birds, the gentle breeze, the sound of children playing in the background, the tantalizing aroma of grilling sausages and sweet smell of cotton candy floating to my nostrils sporadically.

I woke up refreshed, thankful and relaxed and I said to myself ‘Jacqueline, you must indulge in this novelty often enough.’

I doubt if it will ever grow stale to just step back for a few hours and just be without the undue pressure that we put on ourselves trying to meet all manners of deadlines.

To more novelty and reading novels 🙂

Waking up with the spirit of doubt trying to invade my mind is not my idea of a fun way to rise in the morning. This spirit of doubt was implanted by events outside my control, which affects a member of my loved and extended family *unfortunately, I can’t disclose nor breach their confidence, but nonetheless, this issue weighs heavily on my mind that I found myself entertaining seeds of fear and worry.

Fear and worry add no value, but rather, they take away from the person inflicted by the noisome presence.

They are like creeping plants that grow so fast and try to smother everything good along the way. I am still a fledgling Christian in the sense that I cannot lay claims of having it all sorted out spiritually, but I am so grateful that I have matured enough in the spirit to always remember that God gave me the spirit of love and of sound mind and not of fear.

It may sound juvenile to some, but please believe me, when I say that I deliberately started recounting the positive things of just the previous days and not only did I drown out the voice of fear and worry, but I experienced such upliftment inside me.

The Spring break is over and we are back to the hustling shift of rising early, school runs and what not. I am so grateful for my children and the beautiful time spent together.

My babies are growing up, enough to slap gooey peanut butter sandwiches together, to flip pancakes and make light breakfast for themselves so that their mother can get a little extra lounge time in bed.

For a beautiful, caring soul in my husband who showed me lots of surprising sweet spots through his concern and ministration to my needs these past few days and brought loads of laughter to my lips.

I am thankful for Grace. Grace not to wilt in the sight of pressure. Grace that has stood by my loved one in their trying times and lest I forget, I am thankful for earning my first 34 cents in this blogging space as well as the sustenance to keep at it and not to lose focus.

A lot of times, life brings temptation that seems quite burdensome, but if we keep our face up, the load will slide off our shoulders.

I hope that you are thankful for something today. You can join Colline’s or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.

Image credit: Pixabay