I recently read a fascinating post on our desire for success in America. It really hit me that I feel like one of the things that compromises my time at home is often a desire for success. Things like making sure I keep my blog steadily growing, getting to the gym so that I can be that ideal weight, looking my best so I will appear good looking and like I have it all together, telling people that I blog, am a photographer, and caregiver so I don't have to explain that I really am just a homemaker.
The world tells us to make something of ourselves, to be a part of a movement, to excel at what we do and strive to be the best. While some of these things are a healthy dose of motivation to being responsible adults I think it also can be a dark whisper in our hearts that say we are never doing enough and that slowing down means we are being lazy.
What we do at home is most likely to go unnoticed. No one is going to know you cleaned the toilet, but they will definitely let you know if it is dirty! No one is going to know that you chopped that onion yourself instead of buying it pre-chopped. And no one is going to pat you on the back for doing the laundry...again.
But we keep on doing it. And hopefully with great pride. Because it is what nurtures and cares for our family.
The post read:
I remember spending time in Peru, where the pace is slow, even uncomfortably slow. I daily watched farmers walk into their fields from their tiny huts and asked our hiking guide what the values of the culture were. I asked because nobody was really bent on success in the American sense. They weren’t trying to build small businesses and seemed content on being, well, largely anonymous.If you heart yearns for your family and home, I encourage you to consider if you are holding too tightly to success. What if we were willing to live a bit more anonymously? Would we be happier? Would we enjoy a slower paced life? I think I would.
My guide told me the values of the culture were faith and family. And if those are your values, you definitely don’t need a lot of money or a lot of Twitter followers. You just need to stay close to the earth to learn how God does things, and close to your family to nurture your heart.
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