Hhhhhhhhhh.
The sweet sound of exhalation.
Fabulosa, Thieves, and a spilled bottle of dawn dish soap carried me to a bit of a cleaner kitchen. My only goal for this three day weekend was to replace the burnt-out lightbulbs throughout my house. Sixty-five dollars later, my kitchen (and the rest of my home) was feeling a bit more disgusting than it did when half the bulbs were not bringing forth their illumination. Funny how more light doesn’t always make things prettier. Sometimes it just helps you see what wasn’t already clear. For an hour I sat on my floor and scrubbed the grime away as I exhaled my inner mess. But to be real, I wasn’t scrubbing because I finally noticed the funk on my cabinets, but because I noticed the buildup in my mind.
People often say just take a deep breath.
But sometimes I don’t want to take anything else in.
Another task.
Another responsibility.
Another thought to ponder.
I just want to blow it all out.
Exhale the clutter.
Exhale the chaos.
Exhale the noise.
Exhale what no longer fits.
The overwhelm.
The dark days.
The lack of motivation.
The pressure to hold it all together.
We can’t inhale and inhale and inhale.
Maybe we need to recognize what was never meant to stay.
Sometimes we have to rid ourselves of the waste.
To make space for the next breath.
To make room for what’s coming.
Maybe exhaling looks like:
Saying no.
Deleting the unnecessary.
Redirecting a few thousand of the kiddos’ questions to Kyle.
Closing the tabs in my mind and on my laptop.
Sitting on my front porch ignoring the bright pieces of water balloon remnants littering my yard.
Not tracking the run or maybe not even going on the run.
Because after the exhale, when space is made, then comes another inhale.
Not forced.
Not rushed.
Intentional.
Natural.
So maybe today we don’t need to take another deep breath…maybe we just need a long exhale.
To rid ourselves of the noise. The chaos. The clutter.
To make space.
When space is made, the next inhale will come.