There is so much to be done around here that it's causing a fair amount of stress unless we keep talking to encourage each other.
"We've forgotten how to play." Elv charged us on our way home from taking Brad's to the airport.
"No, all these projects ARE play," is my protest. But to prove to ourselves that we had all day to play, we stopped by a wild life refuge and watched the swans on the water. We found a DNR blind to stand in so that we were able to get quite close. These swans were not banded for once. It feels a little less than wild life watching to see that yellow neck band with numbers on a rare sighting of a swan. Kind of a come down for me somehow. But that's not what we were talking about here.
From there we went to Culver's for lunch and then found several antique shops on our way home to browse through. Old people kind of play, I guess. But back to making each minute meaningful.
I keep telling myself and Elv that it's a matter of attitude or perspective. To say that we must get it done implies a deadline, right? Whereas, to say there's plenty to do feels manageable and even optional. We have all the rest of our lives to do these things. It really doesn't matter. But, I wonder, at what number in this list would we feel more on top of things? And if we completed our list somehow, what then? I also wonder how people who hire their remodel jobs out, feel about their to-do lists. Do they feel empowered somehow that they can get more done by delegating this part or that? Or maybe they have longer lists and the stress level isn't diminished in the least. I wonder if there are folks who don't have lists. Maybe they're used to knowing how to live well in some state of completion. Are they bored? I doubt this. I think they must be quite disciplined. I'm afraid if we actually completed our list, I would lose my reason to live well. Time would lag. Lethargy would set in. Kind of an unhappy cyclic yawning state of mind.
At any rate, we are determined to live today...well. To live well in the doing of our projects. To remember that work is play sometimes, but not always.
The rub right now is that it's taking so long to finish up the new bathroom. It seems to us that the only way to hope to complete it is to be able to account for every minute. We both have work and weekends, too. We have family and friends too be with and spring work to do. So every evening has to count for one of these slots.
But we've learned to leave work at work. If work stuff spills into home time or even into our project at home we start to feel stressed about all of the roles. As heartless as it sounds, we've figured out that we must leave people problems in their own time slots, too. Please have that slot and be present then, too. But by prayer (giving them to God's care), we do better, being truly present in the work or project or resting places, as well.
Elv has decreed that we will be taking a cabin weekend soon. No major project to be done although we could immediately remember what those ambitions and needs are up there. Making every minute be what it should be requires a disciplined mind to choose to focus well and to let the rest go.
And our two mile walks count as time well spent, too.
There's one lonely Canada goose who thinks he's a swan. I suspect he had a mate tending a nest nearby, really.
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