I want to start by saying that I’m not having a moan in what follows, just making a point about “me” time, and being kind to all living things. I thought I should mention that up front in light of yesterday’s post, where I took so long to get to the point that I’m sure many people thought they were reading a post from a sports blog and may have given up before they got to the part that actually had something to do with Reiki.
Last night was a fairly typical weeknight. I got home from work about 7. While I was out the kettle apparently started spitting fire, which I was disappointed to have missed. I packed the three year old in the car and drove to Tesco’s, the big one that could house at least three 747s. We got a trolley and made our way to the kettle aisle at the back of the shop, then immediately turned around and made our way to the front of the shop for an emergency toilet break. Then we returned to the kettle aisle.
We arrived home with the kettle. I gave our one year old the last bottle of the day and put her to bed while my partner made a week’s worth of dinners for the one year old and the three year old, for which I was grateful since I usually do that.
I came downstairs, emptied the dishwasher, filled it again, and got the baby bottles soaking – because the kettle packed it in earlier we were down to our last pair of made bottles for the twins.
I cajoled the three year old into his jammies and eventually got him to eat his bread and butter and drink his milk before bringing him up to his bedroom, where we went through our usual routine of chat, songs and games for 15 minutes.
I came downstairs and fed the twins their bottles while my partner started preparing something for us to eat. I put them back to bed then finished off our dinner, which we finally got to eat around 11:15. When we were done, my partner fell asleep on the couch while on television the A Team were noisily and chaotically trying to fly a tank – that’s how exhausted she was.
I got up, cleaned the kitchen a bit, washed out over a dozen baby bottles, boiled the kettle and steamed the bottles in two lots, boiling the kettle and letting it sit for a half hour for each lot, so that it would be well into the next afternoon before more bottles needed to be made. I got to bed around 2AM.
Five hours later I started my day. This morning’s commute included a detour to the next town to collect one of our teenagers and his grandmother to bring them to the train station for their trip into Dublin.– he’s got a doctor’s appointment over a bad scrape he got last week.
OK, not every night goes exactly like that, but it does seem like there’s always something. I don’t mind doing any of these things. I am the daddy after all. Caring for my family is in the job description. And none of this gets in the way of my Reiki practice. For example, I’ve called in at the kitchen sink, and used healing hands to get up stubborn wind or treat the usual scratches and scrapes that small children accumulate naturally.
But like anyone, I do get tired, and there are things I would like to do if I could just find a way to fit them in. Many days my “free” time is pretty much my commute in and out of work. I love my family, I don’t aspire to be a hermit, but sometimes I wish there was a mystery day, for example between Wednesday and Thursday, where I could just chill and have more than five consecutive minutes of “me” time, without anyone needing me.
Archangel Metatron, please help me to find time for myself, so that I can achieve a balance in being kind to all living things, including myself.
See a list of Reiki precepts
Reiki Flow 