Join the Club!

My friends and I once facetiously formed the “Too Busy Club,” where to qualify for membership you had to miss at least three meetings in a row, or you weren’t busy enough to be a member. 

Young people have full agendas with classes, careers, causes and relationships as they start out to build independent lives. Our culture offers many pursuits that keep young professionals and students running at full throttle.

Retirees complain that they are busier now than they ever were while working.  As people age, their pace slows down a bit, so time actually does shrink for people. The 20 seconds it used to take to tie one’s shoes now takes 40 seconds. Such subtle changes occur without people really realizing when their days got shorter.

I have more than 100 unread email messages at the end of every workday if I don't keep up with the constant flood of messages. And that is separate from my home email box, where another copious quantity of messages awaits me at the end of each day. When we first embraced email, it was supposed to make life easier or more efficient. It started out as fun, exciting, and unique. Now it's overwhelming. 

So every morning (I am a morning person), I start with my biggest priorities: prayer, exercise, and checking in with family. And a healthy breakfast. It's a great way to start! Then if the day overwhelms me and the clock cries, "It's bedtime!" I know that I got the important things included in the day. And no one knows how many days we get! So we better make the best of them.

Enjoy today!

Time to get back into things!

I recently had reason to reread Stephen Covey’s chapter describing the urgent vs. the important. If you haven’t read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I really recommend it!

Sometimes I put too much on my plate because I get stuck in the tyranny of the urgent. Someone else needs something immediately. I jump to meet their needs.  

I have discovered that when I say I am “too busy” for something, it means that I have not prioritized time for it. Rather than say, “I’m too busy!” it’s more honest for me to say, “You know, I just have not prioritized that particular thing high enough on my list right now to allow me to complete it.”

I think this blog fell into that category. I was just not prioritizing it over the last many months. It is okay. I was engaged in other things like quilting and visiting friends and family.  We don’t have to engage in every hobby, career-building activity or social engagement all the time.  We are allowed seasons. We don’t have to try to do everything at once. 

As I struggle to re-prioritize, it helps me when I  measure the current event against the long-term goal. I find myself backsliding, too, into the urgent demands that tempt me to displace what is important. It’s an ongoing journey.

Savor the moment. Remember the gifts.

I turn on the faucet and depress the pump. Into my palm floats a foamy, aromatic peak. 

I place it below my nose and inhale.

Lemons. 

I see Donna's face. She laughs as I tell her I will think of her every day as I feel grateful for this exotic gift. The hand soap is titled "Sicilian lemons."

But I think of Meyer lemons and the tree in my back yard for 24 years on Apple Blossom Drive in San Jose.Those lemons were an opulent contribution to so many cherry pies, apple cobblers and lemon bars.  A free gift of nature, the lemons consistently gifted me in frozen slices that cooled my guest's water glasses. To this day I am known throughout my extended family for lemon bars. 

As we stand in line to make the purchase, Donna tells me that Harry is experiencing some disconcerting health symptoms and asks me to pray. I agree.

So as I rub my hands today, and savor an elegant mini massage of my own palms, I pray for Harry. And in a split second I have gone to San Jose and back twice.

I rinse.

What? Where is the year going?

So much for new year's resolutions. My blog has become so dusty from disuse I hardly could remember where to go.
I've been to two graduations, celebrated birth-month and Easter, taken trips to Tahoe and Santa Cruz. 
But I put off writing. Hmmmm.
Apologies to all you busy people out there who were looking for some interesting inspiration.
Today is a new day!
I leave behind any self recriminations and press on to a new post.
May your day be full of relaxation and what you love to do most.

Do you know that God loves you?

I sat down at the church luncheon for newcomers and introduced myself. I soon learned that everyone at this table had enrolled their kids in the Rite of Christian Initiation for children.

“What grade are you in?” I asked the boy next to me. When he answered, “4^th”, I said that this was a challenging year with lots to learn.

“Yes, he said soberly. “We are working on our multiplication tables and double digit math.”  I asked what he was learning in our church religion classes.

“The Our Father,” he said.

“Have they taught you yet that God loves you?” I asked.

My young friend thought about it carefully before answering authentically and with complete innocence, “No.”

I was deeply affected by this answer.

“Well, God loves you!” I said with great feeling. “God loves you like no other person on the earth.”

The boy was looking at me like he had never heard this before. And I could not tell if he believed me.  I suddenly realized that all eight people at the table were listening, too.

“Yeah!” I continued. “God was sitting in heaven one day and he had this wonderful idea. And it was you. A completely new idea— one he had never had before.”

I paused.  “Do you know how nobody has the same fingerprints?”

“Sure,” the boy answered.

“Well that is because we are all unique, and God loves you as if you were the only person in the world.”

As I reflect on our conversation now, I think how often I forget how precious and loved I am by the One who created me. And I bet other people forget it, too.

 I think it would be really great if we could remind each other of this fact now and then—and tell it to those people who never heard this idea before.

The days are now shorter...

Happy December! I hope to savor every day of this marvelous month.
Is it possible? I don't know, but I am willing to try!
I am planning a progressive dinner for the block on which we live. It's a way of getting neighbors together and of connecting across households. We will have a prize for the most outrageous holiday sweater and one for the house with the most exterior lights.
As I plan and purchase snowman paper plates, cups and napkins, I savor with anticipation the conversations we will have.
Will you be shopping and wrapping and baking? My wish for you is that you will also be savoring, treasuring and delighting in each short December day.

How to edit

Take your evening and count the hours. Then count the number of activities you hope to cram into it. Many of us shave an hour of sleep off to accommodate a longer list of activities. Another percentage of us shave off two hours of sleep. Our lists really need doing!
Instead, it is possible to edit the list.  But how?
I find asking myself a series of questions helps me edit a list that is just too long to finish tonight:

·         What will matter most 10 years from now?

·         Will sacrificing sleep to "accomplish" more things cause me to be cranky, self absorbed and unkind to others?

·         Will shortening the list cause others around me suffer?

·         In what ways can I be of best service to my fellow human beings?

·         Am I being asked to let go?

·         What is the highest priority on the list?

·         Is there someone else who can help?

·         Is there someone who should be doing that task instead of me? Am I behaving as if I am the savior of the world? Am I insisting on having things done my way?