We bought land with the idea of creating one.
We'd always been meaning to clear one.
But five years into living on the 7 acres that, in this crisis, are our absolute gift from Jesus and this boymom's saving grace, we still had never made time to actually BLAZE one.
A running path around our property.
Until now.
I'm sorry, we're homeschooling and not leaving the house for the next two to 20 weeks of our lives WHAT? 😳
Step 1. Boys, go grab you some shovels.
So for the last few days, we've abandoned math and social studies for some "science" and "health and PE," which has included the digging, raking and redistributing of pinestraw across the property. We've removed bushes and dug up roots, and we've sent little boys on bikes to pound down dirt to make us look like real path clearers instead of just amateur dirt movers.
And yesterday, after even the flu case joined us in his you-still-have-24-hours-left-of-quarantine-inside-your-quarantine-mask, the boys completed something in less than a week that we have all been dreaming about for five years.
Our new .3 mile running path — the one we plan to hit every day of our new corona-cation lives.
And as we brushed off our rakes and took a look at the third-of-a-mile product of four boys who busted booty and worked together (who now believes slave labor is her favorite homeschool tool? 🙋♀️), God opened my eyes to the specialness and significance of that moment.
Life is changing in America.
We can't just keep traveling those familiar jam-packed-calendar roads we've been navigating since the culture of "busyness" hijacked our lives.
But what we CAN do is blaze new trails.
What we GET to do is make NEW paths.
And what we have the honor and privilege of doing is doing it side by side with the very blessings He has entrusted to us in this journey along the way.
What I'm discovering on this new path is that it's stiller over here.
It's quieter over here.
And, I'm finding as I start following this new path, without the deafening noise of a calendar moving at the pace of a freight train, I'm hearing not just His voice but the voices and hearts of my children even better.
The truth is, this pure, undistracted, unadulterated togetherness with both God and family is reshaping not just our paths and our days, but the kind of family we want to be when we come out of this.
It takes time to clear a new road.
It takes effort.
It takes shovels and rakes and Motrin and sweat and a big bucket of Italian ice bribery rewards.
But the end product — a path we walk TOGETHER, hand-in-hand, closer and stronger for it, a path we can now SEE outside the distractions of the expectations of a fast-paced, trafficky world — is a gift.
Thank you, Lord, for opening our eyes to it. ❤️
"Now you’ve got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand, I’M ON THE RIGHT WAY."
Psalm 16:11 (The Message)