Become less busy.
In our haste to do more, time speeds up.
In trying to go at the speed of light, we fail to live at the speed of life.
In our busy-ness to work hard and play hard, we make it hard to have a good time. Must life be this hard?
When we try to catch up with time, it slips us by ever more quickly.
Anxiety to do more and be more has it’s way of speeding up the clock.
Urgent things are not like an urgency to go to the bathroom. The more urgent things, the faster time goes.
Instead, by re-calibrating ourselves to the essential things, year after year, month after month, week after week, and each new day, helps us synchronise with the steps of life.
Henry David Thoreau said,
“It is not enough to be busy. The question is: what are we busy about?”
Perhaps the rhythms of our hearts determine the rhythms of time.
Time ripples on, with and without you. Time exists in motion regardless of our opinions, delusions, and fantasies.
“Thus we are busy people just like all other busy people, rewarded for the rewards which are rewarded to busy people.” – Henri Nouwen1.
So make time, by becoming less busy. This is probably the biggest struggle I face in my life right now. But it’s a worthy challenge.
Some might say, “But I can’t. I’m busy as hell.”
Can we afford to drown in the sea of busy-ness? Matthew Kimberley says that feeling overwhelmed is not necessarily a function of having too much to do but rather not knowing what to do next.
Lets make room to exist in time.
Walk, slowly. Don’t gobble down your food. Don’t major in minor things. Figure out what’s vital. “Our highest priority is to protect our ability to prioritise.”2
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
~ Mary Oliver, From the Summer Day
Notes:
1. Henri Nouwen, from The Way Of The Heart, p.22.
2. Greg Mckeown, Essentialism p. 101
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