Review: Rest & Reflect guided journal by Rachel Fahrenbach
A review for the twelve week guided journal titled “Rest and Reflect” by Rachel Fahrenbach: I know Rachel through a writing group and originally purchased the journal as a way to support another homeschool mom; because, gracious, homeschooling plus writing in the margins of the day is tough stuff. Here’s what I found now that I’ve used this practice a few months. The journal was worth every penny. She leads you through the process she followed to help make Sabbath a priority in her own home.
it’s okay to be angry-just don’t live there
When someone asked me a decade ago why I wasn’t already writing for special needs parents, my gut response wasn’t pretty. It was honest, but not pretty at all. I was scared to write for special needs families. To be able to write in a way that addresses the very real pain points in a way that could be encouraging would mean I’d need to deal with my own pain as a special needs parent. I’d need to dig deep and digging deep can unbury a lot of unpretty things.
leaning in
There’s nothing like a good before and after; but, for some reason, we rarely talk about all of the unspoken messiness in the middle. It could be because it’s not as glamorous, but the messy middle is where the nitty gritty beauty begins. That’s where I sat with home education this summer, the messy middle, hunting and yearning for beauty.
patience
My teen asked sarcastically if 𝙝𝙤𝙥𝙚 was a four letter word. (I should add it was in response to an economics lesson & we were discussing market crashes.) Without skipping a beat, it rolled off my tongue that 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 was an eight letter word & God is teaching me that it’s needful to count to eight.
𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘬 & 𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭, 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳.
retrospection
We came to a pandemic.
As an enneagram six, I pondered all the worst case scenarios and plotted statistics into my autoimmune survival plan. I stocked up, sheltered in, ready for the long haul.