Hit the Pause Button

This is Day 2 of my FREE 21 Day Writing Challenge. It isn’t too late to Join the Challenge!

Hit the Pause Button

Just this past month did this new one-liner join our family list. We have a long list of one liners in our family to convey a lot of meaning quickly. Hit the Pause Button was Poppy’s (Louis’ dad), and it fit so perfectly in this season of our life. As we have taken the time to prioritize our family, our work, our relationship with each other, my husband and I have learned about seasons. Specifically we have been learning how to take the time to recognize the season we are in, and prioritize accordingly. As things shift beneath our feet, as plans change last minute, as our child throws up just as we are about to walk out the door. These are times when the event, the task, the plan can seem more important, but 30 seconds from now is not going to be all that much different than now. In fact, it is going to be worse now if we rush. There are many times you just have to stop for a second and reevaluate.

Here is where all the justifications can start rising to the surface, the exceptions to the rule. But I argue that none of those are truly exceptions. So, if you are saying to yourself, “But what about when…”

What if You Miss the Bus?

Many mornings Davy takes a while to get ready for the bus. Davy’s bus picks him up at 6:15am, so he is understandably groggy a lot of the time. There are mornings that I get very frustrated because he is not progressing on schedule. I have everything very tightly planned so that he can get the most sleep possible, and any little amount of dawdling can make us late for the bus. To my chagrin, I have snapped and yelled more than one morning to try to hustle him along. I always regret the sadness that his day at school will begin with in that case.

One wonderful morning, I did not yell, I did not shout, and I was so proud of myself. However, we missed the bus. I started worrying and fretting, but then turned to Davy and said, “Let’s hit the pause button.” We went back inside and he played while I made coffee.

After a cup of coffee I gathered our things and we set out for a taxi. Davy didn’t feel blamed, since really there was a bunch of things happening to make us late that morning, not the least of which was that I had not put his uniform sweater in the correct place and we spent 10 minutes searching for it.

This was an instance that the task could have caused a fight between us, where I would be so mad at Louis or Davy for putting things away in the wrong place. I could have been upset that we spent extra money on the taxi (a whole $2.66 round trip) when we were using the bus because it was cheaper. I prioritized my family, my son, my marriage, and I just looked at everything with a calm level head, only possible because we Hit the Pause Button.

This post is one of a series meant to kickstart a writing habit. I created exclusive prompts which are emailed to those of us signed up for my FREE 21 Day Writing Challenge. I am posting my responses each day, and I invite you to join me in this writing journey by CLICKING HERE! The only way to receive the prompts is to sign up for the Challenge. The emails will include the prompt for the day as well as directions to kickstart your writing habit for any combination of the following:

• Personal Journal

• Prayer Journal

• Blog

• Christmas/New Year Letter or Correspondence