I was walking my daughter to school and our little one, age two, wanted to look at every single autumn leaf on the ground. At first it was kinda cute but I quickly became impatient. I scooped her up and half-jokingly said, "Come on! We don't have time to enjoy ourselves!" Another walking family overheard me and nodded sadly in agreement. This has really been eating at me lately.
I wake up and before I can realize what's happening the day is over. At night my head hits the pillow and 30 seconds later it's time to wake up. Then the whole process repeats itself endlessly and forms this pattern I call "my life." And while I love it, I feel a bit miffed that it is passing me by without my permission. I like to have time to reflect on my day. Or time to just hang out with friends and family, yet... who has time for such activities? And every single person I know has the same predicament. Yes, EVERY SINGLE PERSON I KNOW IS TOO BUSY.
Last night I woke up at 3am. I couldn't go back to sleep. In my earlier days this would have annoyed me. But last night I was so happy to be awake. I spent a whole hour in my bed with my random thoughts. It feels like months since I've done that and it was heaven.
So here's my question, is this an American thing, this unrelenting busyness? Or is it a human condition? Do we really WANT to live like this or do we have no say in how we spend our days? I feel like I have to work so hard just to maintain the status quo. I've thought about "what can I cut out of my life" but really, to stop doing the dishes, laundry, or grocery shopping is just an unrealistic idea. What do you think? How can we get our lives back? Can we?
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4 comments:
I often have the same thoughts. When I wake up at 5:30, we're non-stop untl bedtime. I am so thankful when we're out of soccer season since that helps some.
I don't know how to solve this problem except to enjoy the down time that we have. I relish weekends, staying in my jammies until 10am reading a good book, taking a nap, and having no schedule (except sports, friends, dinner...hmm..guess that's a schedule huh??).
I'm right there with you. I've been thinking about this quite a bit. What do I really wish was filling my days? What can I eliminate? How can I enjoy life and be in the moment while I do the daily tasks that need to be done? As I look to the future, how can we avoid becoming so busy that every moment of our weekend is scheduled?
I really think it is our culture more than anything else. Yet that is what we accept because it is the reality we are immersed in. I feel like there is some paring down to do, but it isn't easy and the world around us isn't going to cooperate.
So, how bout that move to Bulgaria? Would that help?
I think it's a combination of things. First, our culture. Everything is so focused on "getting" somewhere - whether it's to an activity, reaching some point or event of our life, or just constantly striving to reach "the top". It creates a focus on constant movement and an ever-distant future rather than building an appreciation of the present and allowing for rest time to absorb where you are right now. Second, it's daily life. Little things like groceries, cooking, cleaning, etc. take up more time than we think, but they have to get done unless you can afford to pay someone else to do them. Finally, the concept of time itself has sped up, so everything seems to go at a crazier pace. For example, did you ever notice how "timeless" time seems when you're not looking at a clock or a watch all the time? It's even better when you're outdoors and you don't have to know what time it is. Our material goods are all engineered to move faster and be more "efficient", so even tiny things like opening a carton of orange juice are incrementally faster. How do we avoid busyness? Through eliminating what we don't need to be doing, becoming more efficient, and throwing away the clock and the watch sometimes.
Kristen tagged me, so I just tagged you. Unfortunately my post is backdated so you have to scroll back to find the rules :)
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