Fall Home Maintenance

Where I live in the southeast United States, the weather has begun to get cool as October ends and November begins. Along with the change in temperature, comes a focus on home maintenance. One of those things is to be sure to have the furnace checked out and filters changed in preparation for the cold of winter. 
 
As I was thinking about taking care of my home, I wondered if I really take care of myself as well as I do my house. In light of what all has happened in 2020, it seems like taking care of our spiritual, emotional, and physical health has sometimes been neglected in light of all of the chaos that’s happening in our world. Our health may have taken a back seat.   
 
I know that most want to get back to ‘normal.’ But we all know in reality is that it will become a new normal and not what would be experienced in the past. Hopefully we have had an opportunity to stop and think about the gifts that Covid has given to us.   

I see children and their parents either walking or riding their bikes together in the neighborhood. I see families actually having dinner together around the table and having an opportunity to talk about their day. I see schedules being freed up in many ways because people are not driving 30 minutes to an hour to get to an office. In some aspects I see greater margin that has been put into our lives. We don’t want to lose that. 

One of the destructive byproducts of busyness, is that we don’t stop long enough to think, furthermore take care of ourselves.  What are some of the gifts that you have been given in this particular fall season?  Here are a few that I have discovered:   

1. I am grateful for the opportunity to re-align my priorities.  I was so busy, that I forgot was the most important for me.  I neglected my core values and had to rediscover those in my life. 

1. I was able to get my house in order.  I call it my Covid clean-out.  I was able to at least begin a huge project to discard the things that I no longer need, so that others would be able to benefit from those household items. 
2. I had the opportunity to begin several new habits in my life. In the midst of the uncertainty and chaos, I needed structure to keep me in balance.  I didn’t realize how out of balance I was!  I have reinstated those having to do with my physical health. I prioritized the holy habits in my life, those having to do with the reading of scripture, prayer, and the other spiritual disciplines that too often get lost in the tyranny of the urgent.   

These are just a few blessings I have found in the midst of a global pandemic.  What is on your list of fall maintenance to taking care of yourself?