Every day is go-time when Daniel wakes up until he goes to sleep. I often recall our interview with his nutritionist just before we met him. She described Daniel as active, and then as if to emphasize just how active, she made hand gestures as though a child were climbing up over her shoulder and around her neck. Yeah, that active.
During the fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas times, we were either traveling, committed to some sort of activity or had family in town. The next thing we knew, we were spit out into 2012 and nearly through with January before we caught our breathes.
Which brings me to the point of this blog post. We are going to try making a more conscious effort to create margin in our schedules to relax, slow down and enjoy not doing anything.
It's a Biblical principle. God rested after probably the most productive week in history. Christ began his ministry with 40 days alone in the desert and frequently pulled back from the crowds to pray either alone or with his closest disciples.
And so, we want to follow our Lord's example as best we can.
What are the benefits of creating margin? For one, it will permit us to rest; the value of which shouldn't be under estimated. Secondly, we'll be able to spend more focused time with Daniel at one of the most crucial times of his development. Instead of filling our schedules with fluff, we intend to be deliberate in our interactions with him.
God has blessed us beyond our imaginations with placing Daniel into our lives. He is our answered prayer and it seems incredibly short-sighted to let life's distractions prevent us from being intentional with how we raise our son. At least on the weekends, for starters, no more frivolous Facebook, work email, twitter, etc competing with play time with Daniel.
For example, on Friday I left work early to pick Daniel up from day care. We visited a park on the way home. The weather felt like spring time instead of the typical freezing January temperatures. We walked on the dirt path until we came to a small wooden bridge that crossed a babbling creek.
There Daniel plopped himself down on the bridge with his legs pointing straight ahead. He loved watching the water. I noticed a bunch of pebbles by the foot of the bridge and gave one to Daniel to see if he would throw it into the creek.
Surprisingly, he didn't know what to do; so I took a rock and tossed it into the creek. Splash! Daniel grinned. I gave him another rock and he mimics my motion. The only problem was he didn't release the rock. So I repeated the example. Again, he mimics me but holds on to the rock. The third time I lead his hand and flick the rock out of it and watch it sail through the air and land into the water.
Yeah! At this point, he understands how to throw the rock into the water. I hand him rocks one-by-one and he throws them into the water. We repeat this for a few minutes before continuing down the trail.
The fact I actually taught him how to throw a rock into the creek really struck me. That's a skill, if you want to call it that, he will use the rest of his life. In fact, he'll improve on it and one day be able to skip the rock across the water.
We never would have gone to the park if we hadn't created the time to do so. I would have missed out on that moment for who knows how long. How many other awesome moments and life lessons are just waiting to be experienced and learned?
I don't know, but we're going to make the time to find out. I promise.
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