Recently, I had some surgery on my lip to remove a skin cancer. Initially, we expected it to be quite a straight-forward procedure with a short week or two recovery. However, it was far more involved than we all expected, leaving me with a significant wound, and a much slower recovery. It all took us much by surprise! I felt quite overwhelmed by the state of immobility I was in. I was so used to being active, healthy and capable of life, yet now I was spending my days in bed, sipping any sustenance through a straw wondering if I will ever be able to laugh and smile like normal again.
This experienced realised how little margin we have in our lives. It came at a time where our days and weeks were running at full capacity. Our week, full of learning, music, socialising and sporting sessions rolled from one into the next. The days were so packed, that there was just no room to spare. Even my husband’s workload was full and outside work activities busy. We realised that we just hadn’t been allowing for or planning for margin.
Margin. It’s not a word we use very often. What is it? Margin is what we need in our life to buffer the unexpected life that happens to us. Although my recent example is quite extreme, we all have small or large interruptions that happen constantly in our days. We all need to plan for margin. No matter what style of homeschooling you have in your home, we all need margin. For example, if you have a morning of planned school/learning/activities for 2 hours, adding margin means you allow 2 ½ hours for that session.
Margin is the space being the ‘doing’ and the time you have to do it.
Margin gives you space and grace for things to take longer than expected, or when things just don’t go to plan.
Allowing margin here and there in the day gives you a buffer.
It takes away the feeling of always being behind and constantly striving to catch-up and rush through to make up for lost time.
Planning for margin gives you time to breathe, reflect on what has been and what is next.
Margin gives you eyes to see the needs of yourself and your children as they arise.
Having margin means that you don’t feel overwhelmed when you are interrupted (again!!!)
Sarah Mackenzie from Read Aloud Revival expresses margin like this:
‘Margin is the space between our load and our limits. It is the amount allowed beyond that which is needed. It is something held in reserve for contingencies or unanticipated situations. Margin is the gap between rest and exhaustion, the space between breathing feely and suffocating.’1
So how do we plan margin into our day? Well, it’s as simple as planning less into the time that we have. This may be planning 4 hours of ‘school’ into a 5 hour timeslot. Or making a list of tasks for the day and crossing off 2 or 3, can allow for margin. It also means resisting the temptation to add in an extra lesson or dash about for an extra errand when you’ve got a bit of time to spare. Of course, we can manage that every now and then, but, if you’re like me, I need to give up that habit of constantly pushing myself and my children to just do a little bit more. Ultimately, allowing margin in our life is giving up the mentality of achieving as much as possible and resting in the fact that in fact, we have done enough.
So, dear friend, let us insist on margin in our day, so we can rest and enjoy the blessing that it is to share these days with our children.
blessings,
Penny
1 Mackenzie,Sarah Teaching from Rest: page 39
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