So sorry for another delay.  The past two and a half weeks have been crazy with travel, hosting family, and the inevitable writer’s block.  I am working on a few more posts that should be up soon as well.  Thanks for understanding!

Sometimes I attach more meanings to words than what is really necessary.  One example is in a recent conversation with a friend.  She was talking about how busy her summer had been, after I had mentioned how slow my summer had seemed.  As she was talking, I had a knee jerk reaction to start thinking of reasons for my summer to actually have been more busy than I originally let on, despite it feeling slow.  That’s when I realized that I was attaching more than just the definition to the word busy.  In fact, I noticed I do that to a lot of words, so I picked a couple for this blog post as a reminder to myself about these words and what they actually mean.

Busy doesn’t always mean important.  It doesn’t mean unimportant, either.  It simply means that at that point, you may have a lot on your plate.  It may be fun things, it may be things you have to do, but the amount of things on your plate at any given moment does not dictate the status of your life. Ultimately, I prefer a slower pace to my life, sometimes causing me to have to prioritize and choose between several excellent opportunities, inevitably missing out on some of them.  That doesn’t mean that my slower paced life is better, just different, and it’s the difference that I should embrace, giving equal value to both ways of life.

As a side note, I think it’s important, whatever the pace of life, that we live it with intention.  I’ve done the busy life that was busy just for the sake of the adrenaline rush, but at the end of the day, I didn’t feel like I enjoyed a single thing I actually did.  I just relied on my pride at completing tasks, instead of looking for joy in my day to day experiences.  There’s something to be said about sitting on a back porch watching a storm roll in while your house is a mess.  Watching the power of God rolling through makes all those menial tasks just seem insignificant.

Organic doesn’t always mean healthy.  I have a great story about this one.  This summer, I wanted some peaches.  So, I went to the local grocery store and bought some.  Then, the next day, a story came out about a peach factory in California having sanitation issues, and they were recalling their stock.  Turns out the recalled peaches were all organic, and I happened to not buy the organic ones that week.  I told my husband, and he replied, “See?  Organic doesn’t always mean the best!”

Now, I know all about the research behind GMOs, high fructose corn syrup, processed foods, and all the other things out there that are bad for me.  Honestly, it’s all really overwhelming.  So, in an effort to save what sanity I have left, I just had to let go and do the things I know can keep me healthy.  Having balanced meals throughout the day, eating a variety of meals (including some vegetarian), keeping my processed food intake at a minimum by eating out less and cooking more from scratch, using portion control and not finishing everything on my plate are all ways I use to stay healthy.  Plus, I try to incorporate exercise at least once a day, sometimes twice depending on my schedule.  When I simplify it, it became much easier for me to accept myself and my body.  I’m less overwhelmed and feel better all around.

In my community, the terms healthy and busy are really quite subjective.  What is healthy or busy to one family may be completely different for another family.  The problem arises when these words are meant to judge or isolate others, or to place ourselves above others to make ourselves feel better.  I think this is an important reminder for me to watch my words and speak with intention, find my worth in God alone, and help others to see the worth God has created in them.