May 28, 2015
Well it’s Official
I’m calling it. The days, the hours, the minutes, and seconds are gone. Filled with busyness like a rattled bee hive, we pack our lives fuller than our bedroom closets. Our delight in consumption spills over the line from the physical, and we spend every second we have packing every minute with busyness.
I think most people I meet wish they had “more time.” We struggle to get all the activities done that we want to do. In an frenzy we rush to clean the house, get to the store for groceries, cook dinner, do a little extra work for the job, make a dentist appointment, mow the grass, wash the car, get to Kohls before that coupon runs out, do laundry, sit down with the kids to do taxes, get the husband to soccer practice, do the dishes -thank god there is a TV in the kitchen to catch up on all the shows we’re behind on. …Wait what? Was that all even right?
Prioritizing (Empty)
It seems to me, we wouldn’t know what to do with free time if we had it.
You could say that it is about prioritization. That what we need to do to fix this is to better determine what is important, and do that. However, I think there is a bigger problem at hand. We don’t know how to not do something.
We are uncomfortable in the silence. We are lonely without someone else sharing our experience. We don’t know how to just be. To do nothing, and then be happy with that.
Could you, right now, go outside, and watch the breeze rustle through the brush while the birds chirp around you? Do you remember what that sounds like? Could you sit on a bench by yourself, people scurrying by you, without feeling awkward? When was the last time you deliberately did something alone?
We ought to be able to enjoy the moments of inactivity without guilt over not doing something else. We should be able to be without turning on the tv, or radio every time something else hasn’t seized our attention. Do you remember what your breath sounds like? Just your breath.
Relearn How to Feel the Moment
If we are to enjoy the excitement we bring into our lives, we must be able to enjoy life. We need to relearn how to feel the moment. To experience a minute. We need learn to smell, and see, and listen to what it really around us. There is a rich tapestry of existence happening around us right now, and when we overwhelm our brains with activity it is left with no choice but to tune something out.
We aren’t living more by filling our days so full that the only moment left is the time between the seconds, we are taking our short time in this existence away.
Breath.
Smile.
Listen.
The world is a beautiful place. We should seek out excitement, and adventure wherever we can find it. However, if we are to truly experience life, we need to relearn how to experience.
-Michael Speck
How will you practice just being, this week?
4 Comments
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Nellie Weitekamp
June 6, 2015
I couldn’t agree more… My “free” time is spent still “doing.” I turn the TV on, I search Facebook, Pinterest, email, the internet, etc… Anything to not be sitting there in “awkward” silence. I need to learn to actually relax and be okay with silence.