For the past 6 weeks or so, I’ve been on a bit of a local book tour.  Speaking at churches, events, enjoying an official book launch (photos coming soon) and on the radio too.  I’ve done one telephonic interview and then, yesterday, a real, in studio LIVE interview on SAfm.

The kids and Craig have been game to come along to other churches with me.  But, I have noticed the strain it places on them all.  Which is why when the interview for SAfm came up, I was stumped. 

It was one of those examples of life interrupting life.  We had planned to go away that weekend.  I wasn’t supposed to be in town for the interview, which was sprung on me at the last minute.  But, with other events happening in-town that the kids didn’t want to miss, and with my publishers urging me to take up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Craig and I decided to stay in town.  Craig urged me to do it – it’s a huge opportunity after all.  But, I still felt unsure.

It’s been the first real heart-struggle for me.  I’ve already spoken on this blog about not wanting to let the author hat usurp the mom, wife and family member hat or compromise my values.  But for the gracious support of my family, including those to whom we were going for the weekend, I suspect that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to chat about Seekers on air at all.   Sometimes, I think, it takes outside perspectives to help one muddle through the tougher decisions.  And even the tough, but not greatly (or foreseeably) significant in the long run, decisions – like this one! 

So, having agreed to stay in town, and agreed to the interview, we had the whole weekend (newly) planned:  kids off to church events on Friday night, then parties on Saturday.  We’d celebrate Father’s Day together at church and then later with Craig’s folks.  At some point, Craig and I would slip out for an hour or two so that I could chat to Nancy Richards of the SAfm Literature show at the SABC buildings in Seapoint.

Then Sam got sick.  Really sick with horrible gastro, which he is still struggling with.  And so went our plans.  No church for me and Sam on Sunday.  No extended family lunch.  No Craig to accompany me to the interview….  Disappointed?  I was, a little.   Yet, now I chuckle.  Not at the poor little boy who is still feeling quite grim.  But at the fact that even if I try to dream dreams of grandeur, the reality of my life won’t allow it!  You see, here I was speaking to the well-respected radio personality, Nancy Richards on South Africa’s biggest national broadcasted radio station, about my book – only to return home, via the pharmacy, in order to nurse a sick boy and administer anti-nausea suppositories. 

The irony of agonising over whether to do the interview or not, because I didn’t want to compromise my family, and then spending most of the long weekend washing soiled bedding, cleaning up vomit and soothing a sick, sad little boy, did not escape me.  And it made me realise how very silly I was in the first place.  I am abundantly aware how easy it is to slip down the slope of self-glory to the neglect of those around you.  But what I hadn’t thought too much about was that, in some ways, that slope is not so slippery when reality slaps you in the face on a regular basis along the way.  It reminded me that for Christians, being in God’s will isn’t about walking a tightrope.  But rather it’s about living within the broad, generous boundaries He has outlined in His Word. 

While praying for Sam’s health, I was also able to pray a prayer of thanks.  Thanks that in this decision which had me agonising over issues of my selfishness versus my service to my family, I had a very real experience of "it’s really not that big a deal, Taryn"!   

More on the interview itself, as well as the audio clip of the interview here: http://tarynhayes.com/safm-interview-with-nancy-richards/