We are a society bent on going.
The pace at which we feel we must live is exhausting, even for the most ambitious person. Messages of hustle, keep going, push in, try harder, be more, have it all…these are all about going even when you’re falling asleep standing up.
They are also all about you. What YOU can do. What YOU need to strive for. Why YOU need to keep going.
There are definitely times when life demands a lot. There are moments when you have to just keep going even through fatigue. But these shouldn’t dominate us or be the norm.
I used to view life as a checklist of things to get through. What did I HAVE to do before I could read or write or craft or just take a break? And I realized that my checklist was never complete. When I neared the end, something would come up that needed my attention and the list would grow.
So then I thought the answer was to rush. Clean quickly. Rush through meal prep, eating, and cleanup. Skim books, multitask everything possible. But the checklist was never complete and I was more exhausted and actually accomplishing less. And I certainly wasn’t enjoying anything.
Then one day, I was at a friend’s house. Susan is a busy interior designer and she easily has 50 tabs open in her brain at all times of things she’s working on. But as she was moving around her kitchen preparing our meal, there was nothing rushed. She took joy in every aspect of the moment. She chopped the onion precisely, sometimes stopping as she thought of the right word to describe something to me. She carefully folded the napkins for the table. She arranged the food on each plate to perfectly match. She wanted to give her best effort at where she was then, what she was doing then, and leave the next task for when this one was completed and enjoyed. No use to rush. The next thing would still be there after dinner.
I realized with young kids these stylized meals would be difficult for me to duplicate. However, I could adopt a less frenzied attitude in what I did. And I could change my thinking from a HAVE to checklist to a GET to checklist. I realized that my frustration with certain tasks was based on my attitude toward them. It’s a joy to have food to feed my family. A privilege to have a nice kitchen to work in. A blessing to sit and savor time together as we review our day as a family.
All those things were missing when I was hustling to get done with that to get on with something else.
I believe we miss out on realizing so many blessings around us because we’re too busy running from thing to thing to notice what just happened. And often things that should be a blessing are phrased as a complaint. We don’t feel we are ungrateful but we certainly aren’t thankful!
So I’ve been attempting {and it’s not always easy} to linger a little longer when I’m in the midst of things. I turn on music and sing along while I cook. I make a cup of hot tea and sit to enjoy it. I fold laundry and let my thoughts wander over the funny moments of the day. I don’t try to make things pass quickly. I don’t fill every moment with noise or tasks. I allow myself to just sit and pray.
And I find a new enjoyment and thankfulness in small, lingering moments.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash