Submitted by: Judy R. Carlson
“Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
“And God breathed into Adam the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
My four-year-old daughter made a statement to me one day as we were making bread. She with her little lump of dough and flour everywhere, and I with my big lump, kneading away. We were talking about heaven and how fun it will be to have our new body that can do all the things that Jesus’ new body did. Some of these included: eating, drinking, talking to friends and recognizing each other, appearing and disappearing, walking through walls and even being up in the sky with the clouds. Anna’s eyes were shining with delight from the enchantment of our conversation. “When will Jesus come back for us Mommy?” I replied, “Oh Annalisa, I hope soon but only God knows that exact day!” She responded with a sigh, “Well then I guess I’ll just keep on breathing and breathing ’til Jesus comes.”
Some would call that ‘quality time’ with my daughter, but I prefer to describe it as ‘quantity time’ with a quality moment. There is a vast difference. That was twenty-one years ago. Annalisa is our youngest daughter and expecting her first baby in April. She is still keeping on with ‘breathing and breathing ’til Jesus comes’, but her breath level has changed a little as she is learning the breathing techniques for the ‘Dr. Ferdinand Lamaze, Natural Childbirth Method–sans dolar’! I am still spending time with Anna but more of it now is ‘quality’ time, based on the years of ‘quantity’ time that it takes to build a long-standing relationship of trust with our children.
I am her Lamaze instructor. We live eight hours from her and her husband Justin, so it has been a bit tricky to train them. The original method was brought from Russia to France by Dr. Lamaze, and is very different from the Americanized version. It takes 6-8 weeks of disciplined practice to learn the relaxation and breathing. Anna’s husband is her coach and it requires some special time together for the three of us but it requires hours of practice together for the two of them over the remaining six weeks until birth. Hours of building trust for this monumental passage–birth. Well worth the quantity of time it will take.
“Quantity time.’ It’s the stuff of relationships and there are few if any ‘quality moments’ without it. It’s like breathing in and out all day long. After reading this piece to my husband he stated, “can you imagine how short life would be with only quality breaths!?” Spoken like a man since I never would have thought of that.
Each of us as women weave a divine spell of godly enchantment in our homes through the hours and minutes of our days: a candlelight breakfast of hot cereal before school on a dark, wintry morning; our husband comes in from work and the neighborhood children have been sent home, his children come to him with a cold drink, a paper, and happily remove his boots or shoes. He gives them a hug and promises more time together later. Mommy instructs them to give him some quiet moments to process being home and to put his mind at rest. A simple bouquet of wild flowers or winterberry branches set on a table spread with a pretty cloth for dinner.
These are only a few simple things that take some time and thought, but they cast a sweet aura of hominess that sweetens the stresses of difficult days: 2:00 a.m. feedings, exhausted days running into nights of sick and feverish children, teenage heartaches, our own broken friendships, or news of a PCS move too far from loved ones. “We shall all experience the thousand outrageous arrows of misfortune” (Shakespeare?) These troubles are a normal part of life but often cause jangled nerves and angry words spoken in haste. Without time, times and more time to have given a focus to the simple but sweet moments in life, where do we find ourselves? Out of time and feeling out of love with our mortal journey.
Let us breathe in and breathe out this breath of life that God has given us that makes us living souls and give wise thought to how to live out our days as women of faith.
