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This is the time of year where my quiet, nice life gets overtaken by my children, the kiddos that took up residence in my body and used to love nothing more than a few toys and cartoons are now bored out of their skulls. Now they plug into their devices until another camp is scheduled or another activity is planned. Basically I am their credit card, chauffeur and chef.

Guy, Girl, Trans, Gay, Straight, every ethnicity and race, we all have a body; we have the one we have and the one we wish we did. Not a day goes by where I don’t see a magazine cover, a tweet, a news story, Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram post on, you guessed it, getting the body of your dreams, the perfect thigh gap, the six pack abs…. It is exhausting. Have you ever wandered through an art gallery and looked at the amazing array of bodies that make up fine art, if you haven’t you should!

When life gets busy and things seem so far beyond my control I do a mental check, are all my plates still spinning up in the air? I have this image that when things are good I am like an old fashioned circus act where I am spinning plates on a pole, each new task or worry is a new plate. When things are bad I see broken pottery crashing around me and my sticks have stopped spinning. All of you must have your own image or analogy to represent how you are feeling at any given time, but that is ours.

So much of what we define as lazy is actually self care. We are so intent on being the best and the most amazing all the time, but it gets exhausting. In the United States we are so competitive about how busy we are. I measure how good my week was by how much time I had to actually make dinner and if I got my little humans off to bed with a book AND on time! Extra points if they brushed well! We are humans and need downtime, so that little nap on the couch, or the 5 minutes in your room after you pick up the kids, all necessary!

Last week we talked about how uncomfortable we are with silence, but over the last week, the topic of how necessary silence is has been repeating in our thoughts. When everything is going wrong, a quiet space is the perfect way to find your way again. When your anxiety and stress is off the charts, quietness and solitude are soothing and healing. When you are supporting someone in pain, being quiet and listening is perhaps the best gift you can give. Silence, while often uncomfortable, can be a space where healing, calmness and peace settle like a balm.