I’ve moved beyond the crazy-busy, young-child years but I remember them well. I was touched by the candor and thought of this article by Jennifer Fulwiler, who offers a practice we might all benefit from in Lent.
“Shortly after I converted to Catholicism, I found myself hopelessly overwhelmed. I had three children under age three, a seemingly endless to-do list, and regularly felt like I was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. I’d begun to deal with my stress by spending too much time on the internet, and my prayer life had become almost nonexistent. As Lent approached that year, I spent a lot of time searching for how I could make it a time of reprioritization and renewal. I wanted to undertake a spiritual practice that would be drastic enough to break me out of my rut, but would also be reasonable for someone with my crazy lifestyle to undertake. And then, during one of my (all-too-rare) prayer times, I got an odd inspiration:
“Turn out the lights.”
Worth surfing over to!