Embrace the Moment
Welcome back to the Solidarity podcast
where we share stories to connect with one another, find comfort in life’s challenges & to celebrate the solidarity that is, being a woman.
Sitting on our bright tomato red truck topper in a field on a slowly withering farm, I can’t help but feel grateful. The grass is luscious and bright green, the creek is flowing and cows are mooing in the background. Dogs bark and birds chirp and the sun bares down on my skin but a light breeze evens it out and I am truly at peace.
The long drive is lined with a row of freshly blooming tree, except for one lonely stump right in the middle where the tree had fallen in a storm a few years ago. A red hornet pierces the horizon of the bright blue sky and although it hasn’t rained in days, I somehow catch a glimpse of a rainbow arching right over my favorite barn. It is fallen to pieces but the outline of the structure holds stories that only a few will ever know.
This is my happy place. The farm that my husband grew up on, the property that I lived on when I needed to escape the city and a really horrible roommate. The place we spent our first few months of marriage and now the place where we’re spending time restoring our food truck trailer while Hayden plays with his cousins in the grass with bunnies and dogs. I’m sometimes sad we don’t live here and that I can’t give him, heck even me, this life everyday. We can’t spend a lot of time outside where we live, but I am grateful for this place that we can often go to and have a reprieve from suburbia. Who knows, we might even make it back to these hills someday.
This is one of my busiest seasons I’ve ever been in, yet I’ve never been more content and at peace with where we’re at. It’s something I’ve prayed for for a very long time and I believe that God has always wanted that for me, but it’s taken until now, letting go of results and expectations that I’ve actually gotten here. And of course some days it’s incredibly hard, but it’s helped immensely.
We have a lot going on with both of our businesses, Dustin’s upcoming surgery, this sweet baby boy I’m growing inside of me, raising a toddler, getting more and more involved in our church and really trying to cultivate friendships. It’s not been easy, but it’s been really beautiful.
I really want to end this season off with a few takeaways that you can try to embrace while we’re on a break over the next few months. So I’m going to share a few of the things that have helped me get here.
First and foremost, I’m in constant prayer throughout the day.
And I don’t mean that in a self righteous way. it’s actually quite casual. Like Hey God I’m really upset that this isn’t going my way, can you show me something good in this or maybe give me a reason? And He doesn’t always tell me exactly why something is happening in a particular way but I’m often met with peace, a distraction or some type of answer.
Secondly I’m learning to say no a lot.
Not because I want to, I’m very much a people pleaser, but because I have to. If it’s going to take away time from my husband and son, it’s going to have to be a really good reason. If I’m going to spend money in our budget, it needs to be quite clear why. I’m thinking through my answers more and choosing to say no when it’s going to overwhelm me and push me past that point of peace and it doesn’t feel right. I feel like this comes with the territory of discernment but it comes in waves and I aim to only plan a week or a few days at a time so I don’t too much. I’m working on not stretching myself thin with places I have to go, conversations I have to have and relationships I have to cultivate. Not because I don’t love people but because I know my limits and I can’t give my best if I’m giving my all, all the time. And I can’t give my best to my family if I’m outsourcing all of my attention and energy elsewhere. And most importantly I can’t give God the attention that I need to if I’m constantly maxing myself out and starting and ending my day with everyone else.
I’m also learning that there’s always tomorrow. Now I get that we don’t know when we’re going to die and God could take us at any time so always say I love you, always prioritize the hugs and kisses and conversations you want to have, but beyond that, everything else in the world will go on if you don’t do something, even if you did die. Someone else will do your laundry. The dishes can wait til tomorrow if it means you get in bed at the same time as your husband and get to talk and connect. That last round of emails can be done in the morning if it means snuggling up with your family and watching a movie without yo being on your phone. Text messages don’t have to be answered immediately. Work can wait. Housework can be divided up over days. So live like there is no tomorrow but also don’t forget to live like you can do it tomorrow.
Take photos, slow moments down, dance in the kitchen, kiss your babies cheek’s twice. Really get down on their level and play with them. Look into their eyes and tell them you love them. Dance while you brush your teeth, sing and sit in the grass. Feel the sun on your face and the wind in your hair and breathe God and His creation in. Go to your happy place whenever you can and embrace moments.
That doesn’t mean you have to enjoy every moment, but embrace them for all that they are. If you are in the throes of postpartum, embrace the messy and the latching and the pain and the release of the old and sitting in the new. Capture and embrace it, even if you don’t enjoy it, those two places can coexist together.
If you are in a season of transition embrace the memories and the release and then embrace the hug of new.
If you are in a season of longing and waiting embrace that feeling and sit with that, embrace God’s hug of peace and comfort and when you finally have that answered prayer, you’ll be able to enjoy it all the more because you embraced even when it wasn’t comfortable or ideal.
I am trying to hold tight to this idea myself as I prepare to walk through a tough season with Dustin’s surgery and recovery and then the process of us launching the food truck and then me delivering our next son into the world. It’s overwhelming and some days I ask God why He chose all of this for this year, why couldn’t we just do one at at time, because we could handle one. But He gently reminds me that if He only gave me what I could handle, why would I rely on Him? So I trust He’ll give me what I need and I embrace the unknown and the worry and the fear and the excitement and the thrill of all of that He is doing and that I get to be a part of. And I cannot wait for the stories that I will inevitably have to tell when we come back for the Solidarity podcast season 3.
Please be sure to subscribe on Apple or Spotify, catch up on these last two seasons while I’m gone, leave a review on Apple podcasts and follow me on Instagram - @riley_quin so that you’ll be the first to know when season 3 launches later this year.
Thank you for sitting with me this season and embracing all that we’ve talked about regarding womanhood, motherhood, marriage, faith and our growth. I’ll be looking to do more regular interviews next season so if you’d like to share your story with other women about how God has worked in your life or maybe even a struggle you’re walking through so that we can share solidarity in that experience, I’d love to have you.
Thank you so much for listening in this week.
Check out the show notes for information on how to connect, subscribe and share if you’d like and I’ll meet you back here in a few months for Season 3 of the Solidarity Podcast.
DM me on Instagram @riley_quin or shoot me an email riley@rileyq.com and let me know what you’re going through and if there is a specific topic you want me to talk about and if I haven’t experienced it, I’ll find someone who has to come and chat with us.
Want to share your story?
I just really want to get back to why I created this space, which is to share our experiences and our stories to find solidarity, even in the hardship because you’re not alone. Someone has always walked before you and someone is always walking beside you and behind you so we must share. We are not meant to live in isolation.
I’d love to have you on my monthly “Coffee Dates” email list, you can sign up on my website or click the link below in the show notes. You can follow me on Instagram @riley_quin and check out my new account @furtherandfree as I am relaunching my virtual assistant business to help women further their businesses and creative endeavors by taking tasks off their plates and freeing up their time to work on their God-given gifts! If you know of someone who is looking to hire a bit of help, please send them my way, it would mean the world. If you feel called to, please share with a woman who you know needs to be strengthened and encouraged. It would mean the world to me if you’d leave a podcast review on Apple podcasts and let me know your favorite part of this week’s episode. Thanks again & be sure to subscribe and we’ll meet back here next Wednesday for a new episode.
As always, I’m so glad you’re here. You’re wanted, needed and loved. I see you, I hear you and you my love, by the grace of God, you are enough.