I was listening to a podcast earlier this week – Business and Babies with Ashely Schubert. The espisode I was listening to was called “Relationship is Everything”. She made a statement that really resonated with me. She was asked about how she balanced her work and home life, and she said something to the effect of: It’s not about finding balance, it’s finding your rhythm.
As someone who’s been struggling to find “balance”, with not one but two jobs that are not typical 9-to-5s, plus homeschooled children who are with me all the time. I have been trying to compartmentalize and block my time, and it’s just not conducive to productivity for me. My schedule is just too all over the place. But rhythm….now rhythm I can appreciate.
As someone whose life has been engulfed with music since before I can remember (before I was born, really), rhythm is in my very soul. The ebb and flow, the rises and falls…I can feel it in my bones. I find rhythm everywhere. So why haven’t I thought to implement that rhythm in my daily life?
Think about music. Close your eyes and listen – there is a band playing. It can be a classical orchestra, a rock band, a jazz band, even an a capella group – whatever you want to listen to. For me, it’s a bluegrass band. Not because it’s my favorite, but because as the mom of children who play bluegrass instruments it is what consumes my waking (and sometimes sleeping) hours. When that band plays, there are multiple instruments playing the whole time. While they are always playing, they take turns taking the prominence. When we get together to play bluegrass, each break features a different instrument carrying the melody. The other instruments are still going, but they have taken the background for the moment. One doesn’t continually overpower the others. Rather, they compliment one another and the music is more beautiful because they work together and around each other.
The same is true of the responsibilities in my life.
At every point of my day, I’m a mother and wife, homeschool teacher, real estate agent, business administrator, blogger. While I’m working on one task, another may pop up, or be bobbing around in the back of my head. It’s a constant ebb and flow, sink and rise, accelerando and ritardando, crescendo and decrescendo. During each portion of my day, one role takes prominence, while the others simmer in the background. Then that role fades and another rises. Day in and day out. The rhythm of my life. Making beautiful music to share with my family, my clients, my friends, my readers.
Musical scales, not measuring scales. Rhythm, not balance.
