Time Spent

This afternoon, snowed dumped down unexpectedly and for a good amount of time. There’s something about the snow that made me reminisce.

My mom loved the snow flurries. Her favorite part was opening a bottle of wine in the evening, watching the snow fall and ordering in, which was a big deal in our eating habits growing up. There was something special about the snowfalls.

Today as the snow fell and more so, dumped, I stood at my back window and watched it. I remembered the conversations of how my mom would lovingly call or text like I didn’t know it was suddenly dumping snow. But here’s the part I regret, I was often too busy. I was too busy working or even doing something admirable to others like helping out, but now that I can recall the times that I chose to spend time with her in her magical place of snow, family, and food, and think. I think about how I missed out.

Your village is important. Maybe your mother isn’t part of your village — that’s okay. She doesn’t have to be. But my mother was. She was a strong, independent, courageous, and compassionate human being. She was my village keeper — she encouraged, loved, empathized, and cheered me on. Unfortunately, I lost my biggest village champion a little over a year ago.

You can’t expect people to be in your village and then not spend time with them.

Lindsay Bridges, Building Bridges

Today, I realized, it’s imperative to spend time with your village. You can’t expect people to be in your village and then not spend time with them. They want to support and encourage you and that’s not from afar. Be intentional with others. Prioritize them. Not out of guilt, more out of expectancy.

So what would it take for you to commit? What would it take for you to take time out of your time to spend time with your village? How can commit to your village today?