Busy with Busy

I am busy being busy.  Life is throwing obligations at me from every direction.  A deadline here, a volunteer responsibility there, an essay over here…Wow.  I am maxed out.  I have no idea how any one can manage to do more than I already do and also do it well.  It just isn’t possible.  It is like a restaurant that advertises that they make the world’s best lobster, ice cream and tacos.  It cannot be done.  I would rather do one thing, and do it well, than over-commit myself to too many things and do each of them half-assed.  So, for me, I am maxed out.  I wish I cared more about what others thought of me.  If I did, I might have gotten fewer tattoos, or finished my bachelor degree years ago.  Although, I do like my tattoos.  And school is just one of things that many of us do in order to check the box and move on.

 I can feel it sometimes.  The judgment of others is an itchy heat that you can’t quite wash off.  That look, you know the one, that critic-y people shoot when they ask you to take on a project, and because you just don’t want to, they somehow pity you for your lack of motivation.  I love that look.  Why is “no” so hard for some people to hear?  Is it because “no” is hard for them to say, therefore being told “no” is somehow painful?

Well, in this far too busy life many Americans have fabricated for their children, running from one activity to another without actually spending a single, solitary moment actually interacting one-on-one with their kids, we lose perspective of the importance of doing nothing.  What is wrong with just being alone with our thoughts?  Are we so afraid that we won’t like what we find, that we literally race from one distraction to another in an effort to never see that we are indeed flawed people who need improving?

I know that I am not perfect.  However, I am okay with being me.  My hips are too wide, my smile is a little crooked, I talk too much, but that is who I am.  I could use a little reflection in my life and I am never going to find that from the front seat of my mini van, while I dart from soccer game to Scouts meeting to birthday party. 

Come on guys.  Chill out.   Sit down.  Read a book.  Play an instrument.  Meditate.  Do nothing, for just long enough, that you can see, without all the haze of busy-ness mucking it up, what your life lacks, what your life has to offer, and where you are headed. 

Let your kids play outside until dark.  Let them do it more than once a week.  Let them explore without constant adult interference. Let them just be children. 

Our kids are the most stressed out, over-scheduled, ridiculously out of shape group of kids around.  Let us just unplug, hide the car keys and sit in a lawn chair and watch our kids grow (without checking Facebook the entire time, or texting about something that is not as important as the game our toddler just invented).