On time flying:

We’re halfway through August. We’ve done all our camps, aren’t going on holidays, have only a few more weeks before it will be labour day and fall birthdays and the baby is almost seven months old already. It isn’t anything new but it always shocks me a bit.

Summer or the lack thereof:

We have not had the warmest summer this year. We’ve had so much rain that the berries on my mountain ash are a different colour than in past years (rain is what I’m thanking for this change anyway), the backyard looks like a jungle and I’ve suddenly realized that every tree on my lot needs pruning (and a few that are growing into my yard from the neighbours’ as well). I’ve dunked myself in an ice cold river a few times but the last time I wondered why, as the sun wasn’t beating down on me when I came out and I shivered my way back to my cabin and a hot shower half an hour later. Today the older kids are hanging out in a tent in the backyard and hoping that maybe the forecast will change and it won’t rain tonight or tomorrow. Today it’s hot. It feels like summer. Tomorrow we have a 90% chance of more rain. No forest fires this year, though. That we can be thankful for. And we’ll hope that maybe winter will wait until the end of October again.

Identity:

This is something I’ve been wrestling with yet again but feeling like I’m on the cusp of figuring it out. I’m getting better at owning who I am and trying to learn who I am in Christ. I was singing a worship song not long ago: “All I am is yours,” it repeats in the chorus. I’ve always sang this song feeling that I was declaring all I have/am as belonging to Him. It suddenly came to me that ALL I AM is His. If everything was stripped away, I am His. Right now, I’m mother, wife, writer, etc. but at the core of me, I am His. What I have and who I am belongs to Him but being His should be my first identity.

Revelation:

We visited a nearby church a few weeks ago. Our church doesn’t meet on Sundays over the summer so we thought we would visit somewhere else every so often on Sundays.I don’t remember what it was that the worship leader said, but I spent some time waiting on God and He spoke to my heart very clearly. I had been stressing so much over weight loss lately and while I had been trying to go walking more often and eat less sugar, more vegetables, etc. the calorie counting/obsessive exercise lifestyle was reaching out more and more as a solution, even though I know how damaging it has been in the past. The word I received that Sunday morning was simple. He said, “You don’t have to lose weight for me to love you.” Ouch. I know this. I know it’s true. He doesn’t love anyone less because of their weight. But growing up, there was an undercurrent of, “thin and fit is holier, better, more Christ like.” It did its damage and I’ve had a hard time moving past it as an adult. When you start talking about this, many well-meaning believers launch into diatribes about gluttony and sloth as though those are the only reasons people might be heavier than others. After this simple word, He asked me a question. “Would you still eat well and exercise if you didn’t lose weight?” My honest answer had to be, “probably not.” I have been so focused on fitting into the mold that this culture finds appealing that I’d lost the plot on the purpose of eating a balanced diet and moving my body enough. With people around me pushing Beachbody, supplements, weight loss challenges, Keto, Paleo, etc. I had gotten distracted. Yes, I would like my body to feel better than it does right now. But I know that weight loss cannot be my focus or I will lean into obsessive behaviour. In the past, I’ve tried to take my focus off of pounds and put it on inches lost or clothing sizes changed but even that leads into obsessing. Meanwhile, I’m missing the whole point. I should eat well because I feel better when I do. Because God made my body to function best when it is in balance. I should go walking with my husband because it is good for our relationship and good for my body.

Anyway, I’m a work in progress. I ate too much sugar at camp and I’m having to adjust back to normal now that we’re home again. I need to think a bit more about what I’m eating and maybe prepping things for myself will help but the last thing I need to do is start weighing or measuring those things before I eat them, or eating only the things on a certain list of good/bad. That is dangerous territory that I know better than to walk into again.