The Importance Of Stopping To See "The Fishies" In Life

Yesterday I wrote about hydration and today I am reminded how easy it is to rehydrate on a daily basis by stopping and appreciating the “fishies” in life.

My little girl Ella loves animals. She points to dogs and cats and calls them both doggies, she squeals with delight when one comes near her and just wants to cuddle them no matter how “nasty” they may look. She will pick up an ant, a cockroach, a spider and probably a snake if she saw one! She grabs my ipad and sings “eieio” as her way of asking me to watch the song on YouTube. This is a big contrast to my nearly 5 year old son Lucas who still screams in fear if he sees an ant or a fly passing by!

During the last two weeks my boys have been going to summer camp every day. At the entrance to the school there is a lovely big man made pond with beautiful fish in it. Every day Ella starts squealing with laughter as we walk past it pointing, squirming to get out of my arms and yelling “fishies, fish, fishies”. All she wants to do is look at the fish and probably swim with them!

BUT…. me, always being in my busy “mum manager” mode of dropping one boy at one side of the school and the other at the other side of the school, yelling “watch out with your scooters, don’t bang into anyone, don’t cross the road, wait at the crossing” and all the other little “instructions” (ok, demands!) I yell out, I normally just respond with “Yes darling, fishies” whilst I grab onto her tighter, rushing faster to get the boys into camp.

My head space at that time of morning is “drop the boys off, rush home, hang out the washing, clean up from breakfast, get the bus to the markets, buy fresh fruit and vegetables, get the bus back and make lunch, put Ella to bed, clean up from lunch, get Ella up, pick up boys, get dinner ready”!

My head has already gone before me planning the day so much so that I have not left any room in my life to stop and admire the beautiful fish in the pond.

But, this morning as Ella did her normal squirming and squealing I decided to STOP and allow her to get rehydrated with the little things that bring her joy and fill up her spirit already as an 18mth old. As I sat with her, her little face lit up, her smiling, her squealing, her laughter, her pointing, her words “mummy, fishies, mummy fishies” at the top of her lungs was actually like water being poured into my spirit as well as to hers. This reminds me of the proverb “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crashed spirit dries up the bones” (proverbs 17:22).

Just because today I choose to ACT and STOP, I choose to rehydrate our little spirits rather than dehydrate them with the daily mundane routine tasks that I wrote about yesterday……..YES, I missed my bus! Yes, I was late getting home and organised to let a friend over for morning tea (sorry Heather!) BUT, I feel that just by taking that one little action step and stopping to enjoy the fishies my spirit and Ella’s spirit seemed a little more watered today.

I am so thankful I choose to do it this morning, this afternoon when I went back, they were cleaning out the pond and there were no fish in there for Ella to see!

Question: What are the “fishies” you see in your journey every day that you may need to STOP and appreciate more?

Would love to hear what happens when you choose to STOP.

Jaime Simpson