Breakfast Is Canceled Until Further Notice

In early July as I drove along a country road, alone, in a quiet car, I saw this sign hanging in front of a small obscure restaurant, Breakfast is Canceled Until Further Notice. I instantly pictured what those words meant and how they applied to my life. Breakfast canceled until further notice must mean that there just wasn’t enough interest, at the time, to continue on with that meal. I wasn’t sure if that disinterest was on the part of the cook, or the patron. But given the day I was having, I believed it to be the cook.

I was feeling a bit dispirited and I thought, "Yeah, it would be easy to get up and hang a sign like that in my kitchen."

So much on my mind…the trials of raising children, the pain that friends were enduring, the anxiety felt as test results were pending, the companionlessness of a grandparent living alone…it was surely a down day.

I wasn’t particularly excited about planning and starting a new school year either. It had taken weeks for decisions to be made as to the future of our homeschool. And, our spring and summer had been unusually busy. There had been no time for rest. No time to refresh the excitement that comes with a new school year.

Why are we so busy?

I don’t think life was intended to be so hectic. I don’t believe we were ever meant to live lives of constant activity running from one endeavor to another without having time to refresh and renew.

Whirling around in constant activity is really, for me, no time to make decisions of planning. It is only in the quiet that I am able hear a voice of direction. And, for me, the quiet has to be consistent for a time before I can really listen. In this life there is so much noise and so much stimulation all around. Not often do we find a quiet place.

August began to settle down and life became so much easier. I was able to listen, and began to find answers and become excited again about planning a new school year. I wasn’t running here, going there, fulfilling this commitment, accomplishing that task. I am much happier when life is simple. I am much more at peace when I spend time taking a walk or playing a board game with my kids…and they are happier, too.

As in the past, I once again start my day with, “Lord help me to accomplish what it is that YOU want me to accomplish today.” After all, it is His day…not mine.

I guess I had to cancel breakfast for a time in order to appreciate, again, the meal and the joy that comes with it.

Comments

[Maria]

I can really relate to this post!

Very well said...

Now, let's go out for breakfast! LOL!

[Denise]

That's OK...if you can't get breakfast at that restaurant, I saw a sign outside a place in Montoursville advertising eggs and TOASST. I had to wonder if some teenage kid just wanted to put "ass" on a billboard somewhere... :)

Ahem. Sorry. I meant to obsure the letters on that bad word in my previous comment! :)