I am thankful to share my friend Brittany’s story with you today. It illustrates how important it is to listen to what our body and emotions are telling us and what a difference quieting can make. I hope you enjoy hearing about her journey of becoming a new Mom and how she has navigated those unknown waters.
Brittany Busch is a wife to Brett and a new mom to her almost one-year old, Ella. She has spent the last twelve years in both early childhood education and emotional and behavioral support for students, teachers, and classrooms within multiple education systems. In the last year, she has begun a journey from education to ministry and parenthood.
Over the last year, transition and change have been the backdrop to this season of our lives. Moving from Michigan to Nebraska, changing careers for both my husband and I, and most recently, becoming parents to our daughter, Ella. Thankfully, Thrive and relational skills became a part of our journey five years ago and has been an ongoing companion in this new season. Becoming a mother has invited an abundance of brand new challenges in my relational skills, and the skills that I was once fluent in are being challenged as I step into a new phase of life and maturity, parenthood.
In sitting down to write my thoughts, the challenges and invitations for new learning and growth are abundant, and overwhelming. I have found the process of writing to be difficult, as I narrow my thoughts down to just one. So as I take this moment to quiet my body, my thoughts, and my heart, God’s calm and reassuring voice lead me to begin at the beginning, the beginning of my own journey with relational skills. The skill of quieting.
When Ella came into our lives, my body began frantically buzzing with fear. The fear of being responsible for another human. The fear of not having enough energy. The fear of not getting any sleep. The fear of her cry and an inability to soothe. The fear of not knowing what to do. The fear of being alone. The fear of having so much fear. The quiet stillness I had come to know over the years had slipped out of sight without me knowing, as the familiar buzz of fear made itself at home in my body.
This fear made it difficult for me to do anything outside of care for Ella- take a shower, eat a meal, go for a walk, talk with others. And when I did find myself doing any of these things, the buzz of urgency was a constant companion; therefore, I didn’t experience the joy and satisfaction that these would usually bring into my life.
And by God’s grace and more comfortability with our new daughter, my tolerance and capacity widened just enough for me to hear God’s voice once again. An invitation to awareness, an invitation to notice and feel the buzz, an invitation to name the fear without shame or guilt. And an invitation to return to the God who is quiet, who is still, and who provides a peace that surpasses all fears and understanding.
Today, 9 months since the frantic buzzing returned to my body, I am reminded of the power found in stopping, pausing, and quieting. Each day, each moment provides an opportunity to prioritize quieting and slowing down. In the midst of ongoing to-do lists, unfinished projects, piles of dirty dishes, screams that express desire, cries of a teething baby, God welcomes me to take a deep breath and find the peaceful landscape with Him. Slowly, but surely, I am finding my way back to walking beside quiet waters and allowing God to restore my soul.
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Brittany has grown in her passion to engage her own and others’ stories, integrated with neuroscience and faith. Over the last five years, she has had the privilege of attending Tracks 1, 2, and 3 of Thrive Premier Training, with continued support and engagement from her Momentum and Journey Groups. This is a lifelong journey, and she has been deeply grateful for the impact relational skills has had on the way she engages the world and the beauty it creates in parenting.
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