When ants take over . . . 🐜

Your Journal Prompts This Week:
 

What currently feels like an invasion on my space and/or time?

What (if anything) in my life feels like it might be getting out of hand, or becoming more than I can handle?

What do I need to work through or release in order to claim my space?

Ants in baby's room, ants in the bathroom, ants in the kitchen, ants in the living room--I truly felt like the ants were taking over! 

This was my reality at the end of last week, after another wild rainstorm in Southern California. We encountered not one, but TWO large queen ants in baby's room. Queen ants never leave their home base, but because their original home was flooded out, they ran directly into our house from under the baseboards. 

Fortunately, the situation is now under control, and we only occasionally see one ant here and there that somehow managed to escape a dark fate. But the timing of this ant invasion and the stress/overwhelm it brought me had me thinking about my space and time, and what I do to protect it.

I've been experimenting with how I manage to work while being a full time, stay-at-home mom. And any time something like this ant invasion pops up, it throws everything into chaos. But when you have a little one, the truth is that these unexpected things pop up A LOT. I find myself spending every minute my little one is awake worried about everything I have to get done the second she goes to sleep, and crossing my fingers that she sleeps long enough for me to complete it all.

I wonder if this ant invasion was a nudge or invitation for me to look more closely at the kind of life I want to live and the pace I want to live it at. How much is too much? What feels fun and easy, and what feels burdensome and icky? And is it OK for the answer to these questions to be different than the answers I had before I was a parent?

I invite you to explore what feels like an invasion on your space and time. Or if invasion seems too harsh, perhaps what feels like an uninvited guest, similar to our ant friends. We like them outside well enough, but inside is a little too close. Is there anything in your life that feels like that, and how can you make adjustments to reclaim your space?

As always, feel free to share your insights with me!

With much love and gratitude,
Marcy