Breathing Room

My daughter, Aleah, likes to draw penguins. This is her most recent drawing. She is in the process of figuring out how to sell them online as greeting cards. Drawing is one of her creative outlits.My husband likes to garden. It began as a project at church, creating community gardens for the neighborhood, but it has become a restful hobby for Kevin. (Except for the time somebody dug up all his tomato plants and stole his ripe watermelons, but that is another story.) With his hectic schedule of political campaigning and pastoring, it has been a place where he can find some breathing room for his soul.

"God, the one and only...Everything I need comes from him...

He's a solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul...."

Psalm 62:1-2 MSG

Breathing Room. Boundaries. Margin. The space in our lives that allows us to lay aside the to-do lists, the shouldas and have-tas that drive our hectic, overcrowded schedules. According to the book, A Minute of Margin by Richard A Swenson, "The conditions of modern-day living devour margin. If you are homeless, we direct you to a shelter. If you are penniless, we offer you food stamps. If you are breathless, we connect you to oxygen. But if you are marginless, we give you yet one more thing to do." Sad, but true.

Margin and breathing room do not just appear on your daytimer. You have to fight for it. You have to plan for it.

When my life becomes overcrowded, creativity is the first thing that goes out the window. I slip into survival mode and creativity is swallowed up, drowned out. It is a red flag for me. I know that my life is in balance when I have time to be creative, to produce things of beauty, to breathe. I find I breathe best when hiking and journaling.

This picture from Aleah, makes me think of breathing room.

Where do you find breathing room for your soul?