Merry (not Harried) Go Round

Perhaps it is our spirit and attitude toward life and its conditions that are giving us trouble, instead of a shortage of time. Laura Ingalls Wilder

This quote continues to niggle at my brain as I evaluate the way I approach these passing moments of life. There is so much to think about here. Like Joy mentioned in my post On Time, how do the Amish, who don’t make use of all the “time” saving devices that we fanatically employ, do it?? They live life at a much slower pace, not so rushed and frenzied but mercy sakes, they get ALOT more done. Makes me think of the old adage “Haste makes waste.” Looking at my life, I think there is a LOT of waste, despite my busyness. And I’m not just talking about waste in regards to productivity, but waste in regards to leisure as well. As in, not giving myself as much leisure (by this I mean completely undistracted mental, physical and emotional leisure) as I COULD if I managed my time better. I’ll get into that more in another post though, because I’ve been thinking about leisure as well and Grammy’s comment really resonated with that.

As for today, lo and behold would you just look at what came up in the devotional column of my Bible yesterday *grin*. And the funny part is that I can't really figure out what it had to do with the passage in question, but hey, it spoke to me!

America is in a hurry. Time has skyrocketed in value. The value of any commodity depends on its scarcity. And time that once was abundant now is going to the highest bidder.

“Time,” according to pollster Louis Harris, “may have become the most precious commodity in the land.”

Do we really have less time? Or is it just our imagination? In 1965 a testimony before a Senate subcommittee claimed the future looked bright for free time in America. By 1985, predicted the report, Americans would be working twenty-two hours a week and would be able to retire at age thirty-eight.

The reason? The computer age would usher in a gleaming array of advances that would do our work for us while stabilizing our economy.

Take the household, they cited. Microwaves, quick-fix foods and food processors will pave the way into the carefree future. And the office? Well, you know that old stencil machine? It’ll be replaced by a copier. And the files? Computers are the files of the future. And that electric typewriter? Don’t get too attached to it; a computer will do its work too.

And now, years later, we have everything the report promised. The computers are byting, the DVDR’s are recording, the fax machines are faxing. Yet the clocks are still ticking, and people are still running. The truth is, the average amount of leisure time has shrunk by 37 percent since 1973. The averaged work week has increased from forty-one to forty-seven hours. (And for many forty-seven hours would be a calm week).

Why didn’t the forecast come true? What did the committee overlook? They misjudged the appetite of the consumer. As the individualism of the sixties led to the materialism of the eighties, the free time gained for us by technology didn’t make us relax, it made us run. Gadgets provided more time… more time meant more potential money… more potential money meant more time needed… and round and round it went. Lives grew louder as demands grew greater. And as demands became greater, lives grew emptier.”

Excerpt from The Applause of Heaven by Max Lucado.

I have jotted down some thoughts from my current “bathroom bible study” book (should I be blushing?) entitled The Beauty of a Disciplined Life, by Rebecca Gates. Here are my annotated notes on that;

While the practice of disciplining one’s energy keeps a person youthful in spirit, sound in body, and productive of mind there are two stumbling blocks that women face.

There is the low energy woman whose capacity for action and accomplishment is very low and she just can never seem to get going or get anything done. Then there is an extreme “perpetual-motion” type that results in a go-go-go, without ever really getting anywhere. Confusion surrounds this type of person. A perpetual motion person is identified by;

Activity without accomplishment,

frenzy without fulfillment,

dizziness without direction,

“go” without “goal”.

Oh mercy. She did all but sign my name to that one. Although I can really be the first kind of person too. Actually, I think it’s kind of a Mary wanting to become a Martha thing in my case. I’m naturally bookish, contemplative and lazy, so I force myself to be all frenzied when really what I need is balance.

This got long but I want to share one other thing. I’ve been doing something a little bit funny the past 3 or 4 days, but I have found it revolutionary and helpful so I will share it. I am trying to be conscious of that enemy “Distraction”, and also consciously choose to be fully present in the moment. When I find my mind wandering to “other things” I just tell myself (sometimes multiple times until my brain and body respond, relax and return to the task at hand) “I Am Here.” That’s it. It might sound weird, to look at it like that in print especially, but think about it. I’m telling myself “I Am HERE.” My brain, my body, my SELF is here and I want to embrace THIS moment, THIS place, THIS task. If I am cleaning my kitchen, I don’t NEED to be thinking about the laundry that needs to get folded. Just clean my kitchen, fully THERE, fully delighting in the actions and results of a clean kitchen while not being robbed of that fulfillment by thinking of the next thing. I am HERE. I’m not there. When I get there, I’ll be there. It’s been SO helpful.

So how about you? Are you a low energy or a perpetual motion type girl? Where do you feel you stand on the merry-go-round of balance? Centered and enjoying the ride, or hanging on to a couple of rails for dear life as you get flung mercilessly around on the frenzied race of time? That’s how I’ve started looking at my balance chart. Like a merry-go-round. I want to sit in the center, balanced and grounded, enjoying a nice steady pace… not clinging and groping for a handhold as all these rails whip around and allude my grasp.