Focus

If I’m not careful I could let myself get really stressed out! 

Appointments, softball practice and games, cake baking, birthday party, cheer clinics, meetings, DIY projects at home, deadlines at work, speaking engagements, volunteer work. 

When will we get our laundry done?  Dinner cooked?  Toilets scrubbed?  Homework finished?  When will I get face-time with my family?  I don’t want this to be “just another manic Monday” and the beginning of a frantic race against time.    

Everybody talks about wanting a more simple life.  And I yearn for that too.  But, the simple life isn’t always having less to do.  Sometimes busy happens.  It just does.  And we can’t run away to the beach.  Or take a pill to take the edge off.  I guess we could, but we’d become addicts. 

But weeks like this feel like too much.   Overloaded and overwhelmed.

Friday afternoon will be a temporary reprieve from the competition with the clock but will it all be a blur?  Will I feel like I’ve missed something?

How do I stay unruffled and joyful and show love in the midst of this ultra-busy week? 

Instead of managing and planning and yelling, determined to get it all done and done well – I’m going to focus.  I will fully engage in what I’m doing at the moment.  I will enter into it wholly, with an undivided heart. 

I will not multi-task my way through this week.  I won’t be talking on the cell phone and miss seeing my daughter play her first real softball game tonight.   I won’t tell my son to “wait a minute” while I clean the shower.  I won’t check my email during dinner.   And I probably won’t get everything done. 

I will ask for help when I need it.  I will be thankful for my family and friends and birthdays to celebrate.  I will encourage my 16-year-old daughter to keep trying even when she wants to give up.  I will make time for my husband.  I will focus.  And on Friday, I will remember it all because I’ve been part of it all.  Fully.

Wholly.  Abundantly.