Addicted to Busy

I have started my day as usual.  I wake up with my husband at 4:30, we have coffee and pray we don't wake the baby as every step we take through the house would put a ballerina toe dancer to shame.  I hand him his lunch on the way out the door, get my good bye kiss and I watch the morning news. 

Within 30 minutes, I hear faint whimpers and I know the princess is summoning me for her morning bottle.  My mind is already swirling with the day's to do's.  Sophie and I watch the 2nd round of the same disheartening stories from the headlines that I saw earlier with my honey.  If I'm feeling lazy, I'll log on to Facebook and update our Red Gate Farm page or browse Pinterest.  Anything to delay washing dishes or having to do laundry.  I have learned in my transition from corporate manager to stay at home mom, that laundry and dishes multiply as you are washing them.  GRRR!

In my previous life, I was a schedule and to do list freak.  Tom and I usually had a schedule of activities booked a month in advance at any given time.  In my quest to slow down, I have realized that I was addicted to being busy.  It actually gave me some weird high. My job required me to travel the country and do the work of 3 people.  I volunteered at church, worked in the community and could not say no.  The more I could be a part of, the more I could cram in the day, the more successful I felt.  Truth was....I was withering away on the inside. 

I am so thankful that the farm stirred something in me that craved a slower life.  There was a long unfulfilled need to just "be still" that I had not paid attention to.  One of my favorite "be still" moments is watching wildlife.  Before we built our house on the hill, I commented to my husband that I would miss watching the wildlife from the kitchen window.  The cattle would come down every day and socialize around the barn, which was in direct view from the window.  I could watch the chickens peck around the yard and the baby goats jumping in the air as they began to find their legs.  The occasional bluebird would land on the electric wire that draped from the light pole right in front of the kitchen window.

When we built our new house, one of the first things my husband did was clear out the woods behind the house.  The kitchen faced the woods now, so I did not have much a view through the trees.  Little did I know what would await me in my new wildlife watching post.  I am so thankful that he did not want me to miss something that gave me so much peace. 

My husband keeps a pile of corn in the woods in front of the new window.  He takes such pride in the fact that he does this for my benefit.  I watch a herd of 5 deer each day come to the pile and take turns eating.  Birds fly back and forth through the woods all day long.  There are several types of woodpeckers that come in as well as cardinals, crows, blue jays and sparrows.  While watching the deer this morning, I had an overwhelming feeling of being blessed in that very moment.  I am reminded of Psalm 46:10...Be still and know that I am God.  His magic and wonder was all around me, even in the thickest part of the woods.

Too many times, we glorify being busy.  We forget to be still.  We forget that we need to energize our souls.  There is so much medicine in the act of being still and living in the moment.  I hope you can carve out a little time today to slow down.  There's an entire world we miss in the act of being busy.


(images taken from www.christianfunnypictures.com)