Are you moving too fast? Trying to cram too many things into the day? Or beating yourself up because you're always lagging behind when it looks like everybody else could run forever without even breaking a sweat? It seems like the only voices we hear are the ones telling us to try harder, perform better, produce more, measure up. There's only one lone Voice inviting us to stop scrambling and rest, and it's the only Voice that matters. It's quiet, though, so it's easy to miss in the noise of trying so hard.
margin, anyone?
What are you reading lately? Next time you pick up your book, check out the margins. There's an inch or so of empty space around each page, right? But why? With the cost of publishing and the push to be green, why don't they just fill the whole page with words? They don't because no one would read it. Reading a page without margins would be hard work. And so is living a life without margins.
We all need margins. We need unscheduled, uncommitted time in our days, but most of us don't have any, because we choose to schedule 100% (or more) of our time. Dr. Richard Swenson in his book Margin tells his own story. He was somewhere around 120%, and he moved to 80%. He had a family and a medical practice, and he made some radical choices. It sure makes you think.
in our haste
Someone said that most of us live as if God were pro-exhaustion. Someone's right.
“Inwardly . . . I’m as scattered and unfocused as a 16-year-old, and I suspect I’m not alone. For me, the same questions keep rising to the surface: Am I busy simply for the sake of being busy? And how did I get swept up in a bunch of activities that, to be honest, don’t excite me all that much? . . . We become promiscuous joiners. . . . In my stress-management class for seniors, the most frequent complaint -- next to health worries -- is being overbooked. . . . We are a generation unaccustomed to setting our own agendas. I remember thinking about what I might enjoy in retirement: mentoring a child, perhaps, or acting in a little theater, or returning to painting. But my thoughts were just that: thoughts, with little or no planning or preparation. Now, my days seem to evaporate in a haze of club activities and volunteer chores, most of which I wandered into by accident. Strangely, one of my passions - reading - seems like a guilty pleasure, except at bedtime. . . . In our haste to make the most of this gift of time, are we squandering it?”
Washington Post, Dec. 2002
the main thing
Life is fast. Days zip by. Too much to do in too little time. Grownups. Kids. Everybody. Sure, we’re productive. We get a lot done. But we pay too dearly. Our hearts can’t breathe. Our imaginations can’t wander about. And then we forget why we’re here.
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Stephen Covey