My Failed Fall Re-Boot

Pumpkin spice lattes are now available, which I believe means that fall has officially arrived.

I wanted to do a fall reboot this year. I’ve been in a funk and had hoped that Labor Day would signal a new era in the life of Arley Hoskin—one where she eats meatless meals and the interior of her car remains spotless. I want to be a person who cares about the planet enough to eat less beef and who has it together enough to see the floor board of her car.

While I admit I’ve never had a clean car, I did used to be rather crunchy. I used to buy local, grass fed beef from farmers I actually knew. I used to use cloth diapers and tote everything in canvass bags. I used to work on exciting projects on social issues I cared about.

These days I’m hitting up McDonald’s about once a week. We seem to be in potty training limbo using disposable pull-ups that will probably linger in some dump in China for thousands of years. My biggest project right now is remembering to turn off all the lights before I leave the house in the morning.

I guess in a lot of ways I was hoping that my re-boot would be more like a rewind to a time where I had enough energy and memory to be socially conscience. I only have one child and yet I have started to call her the wrong name before. In my defense it was the name of my youngest sister who also used to be a toddler. Totally a legit mistake, right?

I firmly believe that life is exists in rhythms and seasons. The church recognizes this through the liturgical calendar. Right now we are in a season of “ordinary time.” It’s the time after the excitement of the Holy Spirit’s arrival at Pentecost and before the anticipation of Christ’s arrival during Advent. We are in ordinary time.

I am in ordinary time. This is not a season for huge social activism or the busyness of projects. Yes we can, but for now I need to take a break and ask my 2-year-old if she needs to use the potty. Of course I still have my crunchy convictions, but they don’t seem to be playing out in exciting, sexy ways these days. Nope, these days my crunchy convictions are playing out in the most suburban of ways—I ordered a recycling bin off of Amazon Prime yesterday to help stream line my recycling. I’m actually very excited about this purchase.

Maybe it’s not a re-boot that I need. Maybe I just needed a little re-focus—a reminder all seasons have their purpose and all seasons have reason to celebrate. I have plenty to celebrate during this ordinary time. And celebrate I will, while I sip on a pumpkin spice late and toss the cup into its appropriate bin on my new recycling container.