Life is not an emergency.

What a message that I need to hear, absorb and live! I am so grateful to Ann Voskamp for shouting that from the top of her blog.

But, even though life isn’t an emergency — time is my enemy. Every morning, I wake up and spend the rest of the day racing against the clock. We are locked in mortal combat, that clock and me.

It’s what has kept me from my personal blog — hoarding my small amount of free time, I’ve spent it all on my collaborative 365 project. And not that I begrudge that project one minute of time — it’s a beautiful concept that is developing into a lovely reality. But, I need a space of my own. Or, rather, I need to not neglect this, THIS space of my own.

There is also intention. As I race through the day, I feel so often like I’m only reacting to events. Only throwing water on fires, never putting them out, never really tending to the ones that could flare up only those that are already raging. And it leaves me raging. And I’m tired of raging. And tired of racing.

I intend to slow down. I intend to do things with forethought and planning. Like dinner. For Lent, I gave myself the discipline of cooking all of our dinners from scratch. (We’ve modified the original plans a little bit. Friday’s fish fry at the parish is okay as well as a lunch or dinner out on Sunday — after all Lenten disciplines never count for Sunday, right?)

But for this week, then, I am hoping to go a bit slower. Or at least, if I must rush, at least remember who I am serving and to do it with grace. And Grace.