Thinking

“Lefou, I’m afraid I’ve been thinking-”

“A dangerous pastime…”

“I know.”

-Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I spend my energy on and what I spend my thinking energy thinking about.  This quote has stuck with me since I read it earlier this week:

Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all.

-Julie B. Beck, “Mothers Who Know,” October 2007 General Conference

Now, this is the same talk that also features, “Home is where women have the most power and influence; therefore, Latter-day Saint women should be the best homemakers in the world.”  No pressure, okay?  Okay!  So, it can be easy to think when you read this that you need to eschew everything except The Testaments and scripture stories and food storage.  But instead, it made me think about what I think about.  My brain only holds so much information, and there’s only so much I can have on my plate.  I’ve long overburdened myself with different things, but since we’ve moved here, I have started to simplify things and see my limits.  One place where I can see something I need to change is in my writing.

I have limited writing time, as you can imagine.  I’m one of those that needs peace and quiet in order to focus on it, and that only happens at specific times in the day – namely, Jane’s nap and when she goes to bed at night.  I’ve decided that nighttime needs to be focused on spending time with my husband, and therefore I need to focus my writing time on Jane’s nap.  Now, I only have enough room in my head for a few commitments, and this little blog takes up a lot of that commitment energy.  When I think about working on a story or a poem, I’ll realize that I haven’t posted on my blog for a while, and I’ll spend my energy there.  I am beginning to wonder what would happen if I used all that energy toward something more long-term.

That being said, I’ve decided to take a blogging hiatus for about three months.  In order to keep recording things that happen, and to journal better in general, I’ve signed up with LDS Journal.  That way I won’t feel bad because I’m not keeping a journal and not writing down those things that I can’t really share on a blog, and I will still be able to write about what is going on in my life.  Plus, I’ve realized that “writing” for me means typing, not using a pencil (unless it’s a card or letter, those I still do frequently with pretty stationary and good old stamps).  With any hope, journaling will be easier and more frequent now, and I will have some great progress to report near the end of the summer.

I hope that the next few months are wonderful for y’all.  See you later!

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