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Faith, Family, and Google Calendar: What Keeps Me Together

A moment of reflection — Photo by Mike Marrah (@mikemarrah)

I'll be honest with you. There is no single secret to keeping life from sliding off the rails. I have tried planners with color-coded tabs. I have tried the "just wake up earlier" approach, which lasted about four days before I decided sleep was a spiritual discipline. I have tried doing it all from memory, which — at this stage of life — is genuinely funny in a tragic sort of way.

What I actually use? Faith, my daughter, and Google Calendar. In that order, most days. Sometimes in a different order depending on what kind of Monday it is.

Faith First, Even When It Looks Quiet

I think a lot of people picture a faith-filled morning as something cinematic — soft light, an open Bible, a warm mug, complete silence. And sure, occasionally that happens. More often, my quiet time looks like sitting in my car for five minutes before I go inside somewhere, just asking God to help me be present for whatever is about to happen next.

It is not glamorous. But I noticed a long time ago that when I skip that part — even the small, car-seat version of it — I am a noticeably less patient person by about 10 a.m. Faith, for me, is less of a morning routine and more of a running conversation. I check in throughout the day. I say thank you for small things. I ask for patience when I can already feel it running low.

That thread of connection is honestly what holds the rest of it together. Not because everything goes smoothly when I pray — it does not — but because I feel less alone in the middle of the mess.

My Daughter, Who Is Now a Whole Grown Person

Somewhere along the way, my daughter became a young adult. I noticed this gradually and then all at once, the way you do. She has opinions about things I never thought about at her age. She sends me voice memos instead of texts. She is figuring out who she is, and I get a front-row seat to that, which is one of the great privileges of my life.

I think the relationship shifts when they get older. It is less about managing their schedule and more about just being available. I try to be someone she actually wants to call, not because I have the right answers, but because I will listen without immediately trying to fix everything. I am still working on that last part.

We are in the middle of July now, and the summer has this loose, unstructured quality that I actually like. There is more room for the long phone calls, the spontaneous lunch when she happens to be free, the kind of conversation that does not fit neatly into a weeknight. I am taking that seriously this season.

Google Calendar, My Completely Unglamorous Hero

I want to be the kind of person who has a beautiful leather-bound planner with neat handwriting. I am not that person. I am a person who has recurring reminders set for things like "call the insurance company" and "check on that thing you said you would check on."

Google Calendar is where my actual life lives. Work meetings, family things, the dentist appointment I rescheduled twice, a blocked-off Saturday morning I protect like it is sacred — because for me, it kind of is. I color-code loosely. I share calendars with the people who need to know where I am. I do not overthink it.

I noticed that when I try to hold too much in my head, I get that specific anxious feeling of being convinced I am forgetting something important. The calendar is just a way to put it down somewhere so my brain can rest. That is the whole system. It is not impressive, and I think that is exactly why it works for me.

The Honest Summary

I am not going to tell you this combination works perfectly. There are weeks where all three feel like they are held together with good intentions and the last of the coffee. But I think that is just the reality of a full life, and I have made a kind of peace with that.

What I do believe is that having something larger than myself to lean on, a person I love who keeps me grounded in what actually matters, and a simple system for the logistics — that is enough. Most days, it really is enough.

If you have a version of this that works for you — your own strange little combination of the sacred and the practical — I would genuinely love to hear about it. Leave a comment and tell me what actually keeps you together. Not the idealized version. The real one.

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