Excellent advice, and yet we continue to ignore it and focus on minutiae and busy-ness.
It is my humble opinion that iphones in particular have only contributed to this problem. Now don't get me wrong. I love my iphone. One could even say that I am addicted to the constant updating of information on my iphone, and one would not be the least bit incorrect. One might even have a secret camera that has noticed my terrible habit of checking my iphone for updates every. dang. minute. But it is a symptom of a much larger illness. We have so much power at our fingertips.
Have an idea for a business? Start your own, with your own social media campaign and slick self-designed advertising materials!
Need a website? Why not put together your own, with a shopping cart to sell the hand-crafted products made from organically-sourced materials?
Want to write a book? Simple! Just type it up and self-publish!
If you aren't doing these things, why not? They're so easy! Anyone can do them!
But we aren't harnessing this power to do what is important: Stop moving. Focus on the now. Pay attention to the people in our lives. Be in the moment in which we find ourselves.
Rather, the siren song is luring us to increase our burdens to back-breaking, anxiety-inducing proportions.
The result is the life I have been experiencing over the past ten days, where I have at least five things that need to be done in the next hour and I barely have time to stop and catch my breath, never mind knit or call a friend or make a nutritious meal for my family. At 3 pm today, I sat down in a chair, and started to worry. What was I missing? Why did I have time to sit in a chair?
After a few minutes of pondering, I couldn't come up with anything that desperately needed my attention in the next 15 minutes. I was completely still for about five minutes, savoring the moment. Then I pulled out a little knitting, and called a friend.
Yes, I took this photo with my iphone.
The dang thing is completely indispensable.
Of course, as it turned out, I was forgetting something. But it was an awfully sweet 15 minutes. The iphone and e-mail and internet access and the rest of technology need to go in time out every so often to allow something else to be accomplished.
At the very worst, or perhaps the very best, that something might be to just take a breath and be still.
Thank you for this, Friend. I've had the same stuff circling in my brain. How to make sense of it and reclaim our sanity. Technology in my life without parameters (and my children having technology at their fingertips, too) is not healthy. It's a struggle to set the parameters--let's face it, the enemy does not want us to live peaceful, godly lives.
ReplyDeleteLove you. Thanks again for giving me something to ponder. Take care.
Part of my job involves setting patients up for a test where they need to hold very still for less then 1 minute. Women have no problem with this. I believe they say "really!!! I actually get to hold very still and relax". They are very good at it. Men on the other hand take up to 3 minutes to settle in and be still enough for me to start the test. I say "really, what is the problem"!.
ReplyDelete:0)...
ReplyDeleteThat struggle is a constant around here but I am trying. I do sit down and watch an entire TV show...twice a week! I knwo, I know...that is not exactly a constructive use of time but truth be told, I have a hard time even sitting watching an entire TV show. BUT I will sit at the computer...with my smart phone {I am an i-tard!} right next to me. If I am doing just ONE thing, it is not enough. I must multi-task at least THREE.
Sigh...the only light I see is that in 3 years and 10 months, my 2 left at home will be done with school {they use a cyber program at home}, and since I have no plans at the moment to work outside of the home, I will THEN feel like it is "ok" to sit for two full hours and just read a book or something.
Until then, I KNOW I have forgotten to DO something in the 2 minutes it took to write this post.