Friday mornings are supposed to be my me time. I don’t get much time for just me on the farm and I’m mostly ok with that. We chose this lifestyle and I love it with all my heart. However, I’m also a big advocate of self-care, or ‘filling my basket”. One of my friends described it like this, “we all have an inner basket and when we constantly give and do for others, we empty our basket and fill theirs, which is a good thing but it’s important to fill your own basket too.” My friend is a very wise woman!
Back to Friday mornings, I look forward to my 2-3 hours every Friday morning all week long. I love working on the farm, but during the week I dream of working on my writing, crafts, playing with the horses and goats, or sometimes I plan to just read and sip my coffee. It doesn’t really matter what I do the most important part is that I give myself a permission to do it guilt free. It is a time set aside just for me!
Lately my Friday mornings have been getting swallowed up by life. Some of you know 2018 has been a difficult year for us and we seem to constantly be running behind with everything. As a result my me time has gotten sucked into the black hole that is our life during spring. This morning I woke excited at all the things that I planned to do …..but once again it didn’t happen. Instead I found myself paying bills, catching up the budget sheet, sending out invoices, making cheese, and doing a lot of backlogged goat paperwork.
I admit I didn’t handle losing my special time once again very well. I was feeling overwhelmed, sorry for myself and maybe just a bit cranky. During of all of this I caught a glimpse of something large flying right past my office window. I looked up and saw this beautiful bald eagle. He landed in a tree right outside our house and as I sat working on the computer if I shifted my view from the computer screen 4 inches to the left I could see this most majestic bird watching over the house and farm. I was spellbound. He stayed in the tree for several hours and left just after I finished all my paperwork.
Some people may call me a weirdo (ok, lots of people do) but I saw this visiting eagle as a gift. In the midst of all the trials I always look for the gifts. If I didn’t look for the gifts, I think I would fall into such a well of despair I might never find my way to the surface. Instead I try to find and focus on the good stuff, my family, my friends, the amazing lifestyle we get to live and random acts of kindness. These things fill my basket too. This eagle sitting outside the window while I finished all my paperwork was a pretty amazing gift from nature and while I didn’t get to indulge in play time just for me, I had some amazing company while I worked.
#fillingmybasket
