“Once in a while you have to take a break
and visit yourself .” – Audrey Giorgi

When I first saw this quote I thought that visiting myself implies I went somewhere. Where did I go? Would I return? And then I thought maybe that visiting myself would be like visiting someone after a long absence like visiting my Grandma or an old friend.
As a mother of young children, this would have been a good reminder. I was always very busy with MOPS, BSF, writing Bible Studies and driving my kids to school and to various activities and I never had a lot of “down time,” time for “visiting” myself. Now, as a mom of older kids, they don’t need me as much, they have their own things to do and so I’m left to do other things. But now, I’m busy with my blogs and my Blogging Chicks blogroll, helping women with their templates, Bible study (writing them), seminary and housework (occasionally :-), that I don’t have time to visit myself. Life is so short, why slow down when there is so much to do and so little time to do it in?
But I can see the wisdom in the quote because in all the busyness of my day, I lose myself and just do the next task put in front of me. I have to stop and ask myself sometimes, why am I doing this? Why not take a break and read, why not take a break and go to the movies? But then these things become just one more thing to do. Why not just sit and visit and remember who I am? Ok, I’m not going to get all existential on ya, I promise but sometimes I am not even thinking about me, I’m thinking about doing. I’ve become a doing machine and it wasn’t until I started to think about this quote that I realized it. Maybe now would be a good time to visit with myself and catch up on old times, remembering the good old days, remembering the fun and laughter, tears and disappointments.
Maybe as I visit I can think about how far I’ve come from those days, how much I’ve grown and how much I’ve changed. How God came into my life and turned it upside down and made me rethink my goals, my priorities, the very essence of who I am and what I’m here for, all of that changed and looking back on my life I’m shocked by how different I am now.
I guess visiting myself now means visiting with God. Thinking of me leads me to thinking of Him. I’m reminded of Calvin’s words:

For what man is not disposed to rest in himself? Who, in fact, does not thus rest, so long as he is unknown to himself; that is, so long as he is contented with his own endowments, and unconscious or unmindful of his misery? Every person, therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find him.

As I sit here visiting with myself, visiting with God, I keep thinking of this verse:

Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

It brings peace to my heart, a calmness. A desire to sit for a spell and watch the world go by while I contemplate the infinite, while I sit and realize that I know God. That He has made Himself known to me. Wow, that’s truly amazing and cause for wonder and really something to think about…. How about pulling up a chair and joining me?

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