Anyone suffering from a Holiday Hangover? Because I am.
We hustled and bustled. We feasted and indulged. And now it’s January, and here I am, attempting to wrap my mind around the year 2022.
In this past season, our active-duty Army family returned from overseas to the United States, lived in transient circumstances for months until our vehicle and household goods arrived, and “settled” into our new home in Georgia.
Four months later, we are still settling.
Our household goods delivered over Veteran’s Day weekend. Come the eve of our December travels, I unpacked boxes from our former home in Italy to find things I needed to pack for our trip. We gratefully reunited with loved ones, introducing our three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter to family (due to the pandemic or constraints of living overseas, they had yet to meet). It was a season of joyous reunions we will never take for granted after living abroad during a pandemic.
But in this season, my time did not feel like my time.
I overcommitted and in some areas, underdelivered.
Days felt scheduled down to the minute. Endless to-do lists grew faster than my desire to do the tasks. I was on a hamster wheel where I ran in circles but failed to make progress. It took reading a quote one morning on Instagram to put some soul-level meaning to this fatigue I felt.
These words hit me like a ton of bricks.
How many times in this season have I fed my family or myself crumbs after the world feasted? If I am honest, more times than I like to admit.
The emotional crumbs I offered my family were fragments of a burnt out, scattered wife, friend, or mother, who felt off rhythm and unable to say no to the world looking to feast. I am quick to overcommit out of a genuine desire to help others without first analyzing if the commitment fits our season. In this moment, I promised myself to get off the wheel and stop letting the world feast.
A fellow military spouse recommended the book, Take Back Your Time: The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance written by Christy Wright.
I am currently reading this with the intention of identifying the rhythm that best fits our family’s current season and our resources. As Christy gently reminds the reader, “It is easy to look around you and draw conclusions about yourself based on the circumstances of your season. Don’t be confused. Your season is WHERE you are, not WHO you are. You are not the season you are in.”
