Written in. . .Pencil

My name is Kathryn and I’m a planner.

I sit down in the morning with a cup of coffee and a spiral-bound calendar divided into months, weeks and days and interspersed with beautiful blank pages for making lists.

Because, yes, I’m a list-maker, too. On my desk are stacks of Post-It notes, highlighters in every color, baskets designed for corralling loose paper and keeping things tidy. And pens. Lots of pens.

Ah. . .the tools of an organized life😊

But then there are days when my agenda and life collide.

Days when the to-do list written in those neat little squares on my calendar get squeezed out, crossed out, or just plain forgotten. This has been a problem on occasion for someone who thrives on routine!

Change? Nope. Not a big fan.

I blame some of this on my chosen career. Being a full-time writer requires a lot of discipline and for almost two decades, I stuck to a pretty tight schedule in order to keep my family a priority and keep my deadlines. That schedule kept me on track, but the funny thing about a track is that it can eventually turn into a rut. Ruts become ruts because they’re familiar. And familiar feels. . .safe. But ruts don’t allow much freedom of movement, either.

A turning point came when I received a text from a friend a few years ago. She shared what was going on in her life and mentioned that she was ready to find a rhythm now that it was fall.

Rhythm.

When a word resonates with me, it usually ends up in my journal and in my conversations with God. During my morning quiet time, I began to jot down some thoughts on rhythm and routine. And then, because Webster and I have become close friends over the years, I looked up the definitions.

A routine is “a sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program.” Synonyms: Pattern. Procedure.

Yes. Very orderly. Fixed. And in my case, when disrupted, can trigger stress and a trip to the candy drawer in my office (which, by the way, is as necessary as Post-It notes!) Routine forces a person to focus. To stay on task. And when that doesn’t happen it’s easy to feel frustrated. Or worse, like you’ve failed at something.

A rhythm, though, is different. A rhythm is a “strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.” It’s made up of the strong and the weak. Sound and silence. Quiet interludes and crescendos and funky beats. A rhythm has a pattern but it’s more fluid. More forgiving.

You follow a routine. . .you move with a rhythm.

Oh, I’ll always be a list-maker. I think it’s hardwired into my DNA!

But I write my to-do list in pencil now.

Mmmm.  Come to think of it, maybe that’s another reason why they’re stamped with a Number Two! A reminder that the beauty of a rhythm is that it makes room for God’s plan.

Because what I might view as a disruption just might be a divine opportunity😊

Kathryn