What does ‘to tarry’ even mean?
Tarry means to slow down, linger in the moment, dilly dally, smell the roses. Press pause and look at your life. We’re all home living the tarry life, right? We have to!
I know things are bad. We’re dying to get out. We’re totally stressed about our financial lives and our businesses. But can we take a moment to tarry and identify the good stuff?
Even though I complain about the four of us being stuck in our tiny house, I’m realizing how much I wasn’t with my kids pre-COVID. I’d drop them off at school at 8:05am and pick them up some days at 5pm or later from their after-school program. I teach Saturday mornings too so I only got to hang out with them on Sundays.
I’m getting to know my kids on a deeper level. We’ve played epic rounds of Monopoly having to keep our eyes on Shepard as the banker. It’s an awesome way to practice math skills. We have cooked and baked together. Shepherd’s Pie and cookies galore. You will see it all showing up on my belly!
I hope this quality time with my family is what I’ll remember from this pandemic. This is a pretty picture but there are also many times we all have our faces stuck in screens for hours at a time. There’s a level of unhealthy eating and drinking going on. It goes without saying there is an underlying stress and anxiety present in our days. Will our businesses survive? I’ve been questioning everything. Does a brick and mortar business even make sense anymore after all this is done?
I try to identify several moments of tarrying a day. Can you take a few minutes to journal or meditate? My favorite mindfulness meditation is petting one of our cats. So relaxing.
This morning I looked at Shepard in his ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ pjs that he got handed down when he was 5 – he just turned 8 and they are totally too small. I took a moment to soak in how freaking cute he is in his shrunken pjs and how I probably won’t be able to pick him up next year.
Shepard on his 8th birthday.
I’m trying to get some perspective and what will we want to take away from this time? When my kids are my age will they say “Remember COVID-19?”
What will they remember?
I’d love it if they recall this time as a cozy time with mommy and daddy home all the time.
What will you remember?
I must remind myself what is important. This is precious time with my family. Take it! Tarry with them. Linger in these moments. Running here and there and working all day and busy busy busyness of pre pandemic life – forget that for now. Let’s all slow down and see if we can appreciate this time.