December 19 – Healing.

What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

(Author: Leonie Allan)

Time alone heals me.

I desperately need time alone with my thoughts and to do my own thing to be able to give back to those I care about.

Parenting a toddler makes getting this restoration difficult sometimes. Any parent will tell you the same thing. I steal moments when I can, which sometimes makes Sean crazy. He’s either looking to steal a moment himself or he thinks I’m just hiding away to goof off, to let him do the heavy lifting of parenting a young child.

I know in my heart that I’m a better parent when I get those few moments to myself during “awake time” (mostly because “asleep time” is devoted to things I couldn’t get done during  awake time). I know those moments help me keep my patience up during the intense one-on-one times. They also help me keep my perspective during the fun times. That I willingly signed up for this, and that while I love sitting by myself and doing nothing, hanging out with my little family is pretty awesome.

I don’t think I get enough alone time all the time. I probably won’t for the next several years. I hope to prioritize and blend everyone’s needs so that we’re all at least having some of our needs met if not all of them. That sounds more selfish than it’s intended to be. But it’s like what we’re told during the airplane safety lecture: “put your oxygen mask on first, then help someone else”. You can’t help someone else if you have nothing to give yourself. Time alone is just how I replenish my strength.