I used to live a hectic life, letting the days and weeks fly by. I was consumed with meeting people’s expectations and didn’t allow for self-care or boundaries. Surely, loving your neighbors was only a metaphor for how busy God expects me to be in my church. I gave energy to everyone who asked. Too often, I had nothing significant left for the myself or my family. I was oblivious to how this constant busyness was taxing our family and how utterly exhausted I was becoming.

One ordinary day, I drove around town out on errands with my family. My then 4-year-old daughter, Adrienne, was transfixed as she quietly read her latest copy of Zoobooks in the back seat. As our car edged up to a red light, she suddenly broke the silence, reading slowly but intently out loud in her confident little toddler voice.

We’ve all heard the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” I think that even as adults we never stop depending on that village. We all have a circle of people we need – probably more than we realize. It’s never highlighted so clearly as during times of crisis. We discover whom we can lean on, and hopefully, we survive unscathed and more grateful.