Why are we so busy?

First of all let's get updated with all the happenings around here for the women's ministry.  On Friday, December 16 we will be caroling...even if you don't sing come and join us.  We go to houses where people may not be able to get out very much or don't get many visitors.  It was a blast last year so we thought we would try it again.  Meet at the church at 5:00 p.m. with a dozen cookies!

Chapters will wait until February and be prepared for some outdoor activities for Women of Adventure.

Now on to my rambling which, according to this blog, has not happened since November 1.  That's a long time so I apologize.  I used to be the sort of person that thrives on a busy schedule.  I say used to be but I sort of do now...just not as bad as I use to be.  I was the person that not only would I have what I was doing every hour down in my hour by hour scheduler, I had it down to every 30 minutes.  I loved that!  I wrote down everything that I was doing....I even planned when I would sit down for a break.....but why take any breaks?  That's a waste of time....and eating?!  Who has time?  I would even get upset if I was working in a group setting and someone thought that it was time to get lunch...at 2:30!  What?!  Let's plow through!!

I had no empathy to anyone who could not hang with my schedule and my "get 'er done" attitude.  My desk at school (I use to teach music in the public schools) was a huge mess, the house was a mess, my car was a mess, etc.  I had a friend that I taught with that had my same scheduling "quirk" and when we did projects together...watch out!  Small projects got bigger and grander and next thing you know we where going to Broadway!  Not really but in our music world it was like that.  It was very hard for me to work with people who cared about sleep and eating and little things like that.

God blessed me with a husband who is very much the opposite of me.  I think of a project and within the next breath, I'm on it!  My husband actually thinks before he does a project and helps me think of the details that are involved in my projects.  I rely on him immensely to pull my reins and slow me down.  You see, it reached a point that I was not only scheduling my life down to every 30 minutes and putting the schedule on the frig so that I could see it...but I got to the point that I was writing down what my husband should be doing every hour and then what my children should be doing every hour of the day.  When I started putting up everyones schedules on the refrigerator and stepped back to look at my wonderful organization of my family life, it hit me...."Woman, you are insane!  "Who want's to live like this?"  This was only four years ago.

I realized that this was not healthy for me or my family.  I learned to sit and rest...even take an occasional nap.  I have learned to calm my nerves down if something or someone is moving slower than I would like.  Let's just say Jeff and I could never do The Amazing Race together.  My learning to move slower has been so much better for my family life.

I did find myself recently writing down my schedule every 30 minutes and you know what?  It gave me a rush.  I loved that feeling of going here and there and rushing around.  I haven't really sat down and dug deep to see if it's because I feel needed or feel important or my thyroid is out of whack or "I got a need for speed!" (top gun quote)  Guess what also happened during the time period that I was running crazy?  I was late for appointments, late in paying bills, I didn't buy food for my family for over two weeks, laundry and dishes where left undone, I could barely get to my computer because of all the paperwork on my desk (that's why I haven't writing in the blog for a while...yeah, that's it),  and I took all my clothes that I had on my floor in my bedroom and threw them in the closet to wait for another day to put away.

I think we all secretly love being busy and in certain periods of our lives we all have busy schedules.  This is a busy season with Christmas programs at church and at school and Christmas parties and exams and the list goes on and on.  Sometimes I think that if people feel they are busy, they feel important, needed or the busyness leaves them no time to reflect on how their life is going. 

I have no real solution and no real "spiritual" thought to end with...I've rambled quite a while now.  I do know that I want to make time to laugh with my family and friends, thank God for the blessings He has given to me, and think, pray and do things for others.  If I'm too busy to do those things, then I'm being busy doing the wrong things.