Entire books have been written about the concept of margin. Margin is often seen as the spaces around our life. We find this in the seconds we steal in between activities or even in the white space in our class notebook. Having a good amount of margin in your notebook and life is a worthy goal. The risk that we take is focusing so much on creating margin in our schedules, classes, even our notebooks that we forget to live our life outside of the margin. If we are cramming all of the essential human things into our margin while leaving the prime real estate for tasks, we are abusing the idea of a margin. When we view reading as an extracurricular activity to be enjoyed when there is enough time at the end of the day, then we don't read for long. This in itself isn't bad, until you remember you are the literature teacher this year and reading is part of the job! No longer can reading be a peripheral.
Life changes, children grow, seasons come. Revaluate your life's goals and habits. What are your goals for this year? Are you attempting to meet these goals in your life or is it confined to your margin? As our children take more responsibility with their education, we may find ourselves with more margin in our days, while simultaneously losing time to complete tasks. We no longer have helpers in the garden or at the grocery store, so these tasks take us longer. Meanwhile, our children don't need us to take five minutes to answer a science question or help them find their homework. It seems to be a give and take. What are we to do with this? Shift your extra margin to help accomplish tasks, shuffle your goals into the body of your life, and roll with the punches.
What are you placing in your margins each day that should actually be taken from the peripheral and be accomplished in the spotlight?