We watched a great video this week at our MOPs meeting.  There was a lot packed into it and a range of themes that all seemed to connect and resonate no matter what season of life you are in or what your situation.  This is one of the things I love about being part of this group – the way you have the space to watch something or listen to someone speak and then have time to actually hear the words they are saying.  Time to actively listen and to then swirl those words around in your head and actually reflect on them and what they mean for you.

The other thing I love about the mom’s groups I am part of is the food and the fellowship.  One of the groups has 80 ladies this year and the other fluctuates somewhere between 10 and 20.  But each of these groups has smaller groups within and so you get to know someone and hear a little of their story, their journey in this life.

A little over a year ago, after a period of stagnation of an empty blog, I started writing and then paused (the doing got in the way and I stopped making space for the writing).  Anyway, at the beginning I was a little lost and working out who I was and what my identity was on this adventure and into this phase of my life, was part of my internal whirling of thoughts.

Identity came up again this week as part of our mom’s group discussions and I’m finding it interesting to revisit and rediscover where I am with it all.

I’m not saying that I know the answer to the “Who am I?” question but I think I have learned quite a bit about what makes me tick and what I need to sustain myself.

I’m a firm believer that we never stop learning and that a passion for books and the written word opens a whole world of understanding and knowledge that is just there for the taking.  The power of the internet opens up even more information and admittedly you have to filter and be able to critique what is there and at times take it all with a large pinch of salt.

I have been able to recognise the things that build my happiness, the things that centre me and secure me in myself and in my life.  I have been able to see beyond the roles that I have played in the past and see the essence of what elements of those roles made me, me.  I take time to open my eyes every now and then and take in the view – to look up from the busy and to see beyond my patch of desert to the green of the hills.  I know where to seek out my ‘happy places’ – those places that are full of nature and have the ability to fill your soul.

I was telling someone this week that I think this has been the first time in my life when I have been living part of my life on a set timescale.  A set period of time.  A date in the diary for when we pack it all up and move back home.  It provides a focus that hasn’t been there before.

There is a need to be more intentional.  A desire to ensure that there are pockets of quality family time.  A plan that ensures that weekends don’t just vanish with routine chores and that we make space to create memories to look back on.

In reality life should be like this always though….shouldn’t it?  And perhaps in the main it is, but perhaps we just need to be more aware and take a moment to breathe it all in.