I spent this past weekend with my family, throwing an extended birthday party for my mom. It was really a family reunion and I hadn’t seen my aunts, uncle, cousins and their children in six years.

A lot changes in six years. More kids. More gray silver hair. More life lived.

I’ve changed immeasurably during this time. As we readied my grandparents’ old home for the weekend I began to see this house where I’d spent many happy hours in a new way. Childhood memories and assumptions flooded to the surface and I examined them from a 42-year old perspective, feeling deeply changed and at the same time, hugely comforted. I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and looking through the lens of its camera, began to see familiar objects with new eyes.

I found myself wanting to let go of old patterns and ways of interacting, of old ways of thinking about these people who were an integral part of my growing up but who I rarely see as an adult. Not that those ways were bad, necessarily. It was more that I wanted to stand firmly in the person I am now, rather than being pulled back into the girl I used to be.

Family is good at tugging invisible strings that can make us feel like a tattered marionette, even if they don’t mean to. Family can also envelop us in gifts and warmth, forgiveness and love.

I had a wonderful time this weekend. I feel very lucky to have the family I do. I adore my cousins and gosh, they have cute kids, several of whom I’d never met. And I feel lighter somehow, as though I’ve shed layers of old skin that were unknowingly weighing me down.

As I move into this week of traveling home and preparing for Ada to start second grade, I want to continue to see the world around me, and the world within me, in new ways, with fresh eyes.

I’d love for you to join me.

Is there anything you’ve been able to look at from a different perspective lately? Do you have any specific tools that help you see with new eyes? Please share below if you do!

P.S. There’s something about being around children that helps me see the world from a different perspective. Here’s a photo of Ada and her cousin making shoes out of Jenga pieces that makes me smile.

Three years ago I went to a retreat in Ojai run by a wonderful channel I know, Nora Herold and her long-time friend and fellow channel Wendy Kennedy. While channeling is definitely out there in woo-woo land and there are people with mixed feelings about it, speaking with Nora helped me release the overpowering and intense fear I had of my daughter dying in the months after Ben’s stillbirth. I trust her, deeply.

I don’t remember what we were talking about at the retreat when the topic of time came up. Someone asked what to do when it feels like time is racing and there’s not enough of it. Her answer was to slow down.

I remember thinking Slow down? Really? At the same time I felt the truth in the simplicity of her words.

When we race internally, the world matches our pace. When we slow down, breathe and press pause on the insanity, space opens up as if by magic.

When I’m rushing to get my daughter out the door for school, 5 minutes passes in a blink. When I stay calm and centered, 2 minutes is more than enough to move us along.

As I start my week and look at what I’d like to get done (and everything on my plate from last week that remains unfinished) I’m letting go of this urge to rush, this nagging feeling of falling behind. Would you like to join me? Because rushing + feeling behind = yuck.

Breathe. Slow down. Repeat as necessary: There is enough time. There is enough time. There is enough time.

And the stuff that doesn’t get done? Well there’s enough time for that too…eventually. Unless it’s not as important as you think it is. Maybe it’s actually time to let it go instead.