Feel The Rhythm
“This is a guest post from my beautiful and talented wife, Sarah, who cultivates our home with grace and beauty.”
Do you have a routine you follow? Maybe it’s a daily morning one, everything done in the same order at the same time. If something different comes up, it throws the whole thing off. I used to be that way.
In 2017, after experiencing Sabbatical, I discovered the beauty of changing from routines to rhythms. It was a combination of different catalysts, the main one being a force in breaking me out of my normal for six weeks. (Another one was reading “Chasing Slow” by Erin Loechner, but that’s a whole other post.)
So what’s a rhythm? It’s the daily, flexible moments of life that flow through my day, allowing me to experience all that God has for my family and me.
For example, a few of my daily rhythms consist of waking up early before anyone else in my family, making coffee, exercising, journaling, reading God’s Word, folding laundry, caring for our farm animals, one daily house-cleaning chore, running my graphic design business, homeschooling our kids, and helping my husband fix dinner.
So, clearly, that’s not everything I do on a daily basis, but these are some of the consistent rhythms that flow throughout the day. Not all of them happen at the same time every day, but as a friend once reminded me, “As you have told me before, that is the great thing about rhythms versus routines... flexibility.”
Many of these daily items may seem like routines, BUT here’s the difference I’ve found between rhythms and routines:
Routines are choreographed, and rhythms are interpreted. Think about a dance routine. Every move is set to 8-count steps. If you miss a step, you’re thrown off and no longer in sync with the other dancers. It throws off everything. But if you’re given a piece of music and told to have a few moves you have to use, but it’s up to you to feel the rhythm of the music and move with it, you’ll begin to experience the freedom to move where the music takes you.
So is true for the daily movements of life. We have items that need to be crossed off the list, and we like them done a certain way and time. But that can become rigid, even militant, causing us to hold our breath at times. But when it’s all set to rhythm, oh, how breath-filled it is.
How can you make the switch? Start small and observe. Make a list of the tasks and experiences you encounter on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Identify which activities rely on a time of day, season, or calendar obligation. Then observe as they play out in the day. Do you notice a pattern or cadence to how each flows? Do they require rigid compliance or fluid flexibility? Can some move around or even be skipped over because other things popped up in the day? Does your day allow for margin and breathing room?
When you slow down and become aware of what you do or don’t do in a day, you’ll be able to see the natural rhythms that you’ve created. You’ll be able to identify what has become robotic and what may need to loosen up. You’ll begin to feel the rhythm of your life.