Why Are You Always So Busy?

 

I hear a lot of things from my students.

Some are silly.

Some are serious.

Some warrant further investigation.

Some are better left as passing statements.

But last week, a Kindergartener said something that I just can’t shake.

She said,

“Ms. Deaton, why are you always so busy?”

And I am.

I’m always busy.

I have e-mails to check,

Lessons and programs to plan,

Notes to write,

Spreadsheets to organize,

Things to do.

Oh yeh, and I need to teach the kids.

To save my voice, my feet, and my sanity,

I often get the kids—especially the younger kids—started with a song or activity and then Supervise them to make sure they don’t hurt themselves or one another.

While I supervise, I sometimes multitask on the computer.

It was during this multitasking that my student asked,

“Ms. Deaton, why are you always so busy?”

I didn’t know what to tell her.

Why AM I always so busy?

It’s true. I am.

Always busy.

But why?

 

Last week, I wrote this for my staff:

In the movie Frozen, little sister Anna asks big sister Elsa if she wants to build a snowman. For so many reasons, Elsa says no. Likewise, we live in a world where students, children, grandchildren, families, and friends are constantly asking us to build snowmen, but, for so many reasons, many of us say no. Yet the world is starving for snowman builders. The world is starving for the commodity of time. So this Holiday Season, in the hustle and bustle of it all, let’s try to make the time to build some snowmen, and then when we come back in January, let’s continue building. Our snowmen don’t have to be perfect. They just need to get off the ground.        

 

You know…

I think my student, in her question of my busy-ness,

Was asking if I wanted to build a snowman.

And I accidentally said no.

 

Dear God: Help us to slow our busy-ness and to build more snowmen. Amen.

October Whirlwind

 It’s been a whirlwind of a month.

Not only have I taught my regular lessons and attended my four monthly meetings for work,

But I’ve also prepared my 4^th and 5^th graders for a program, taken a workshop, edited papers for a writing competition, and helped with the Fall Festival at school.

I’ve entered art into and attended two art shows,

One of which I volunteered at for ten hours.

I’ve gone to see two musical shows: “Beautiful” and “MJ The Musical.”

Both were good, but “MJ The Musical” was surprisingly so.

I’ve gone to Universal Studios, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot in Orlando,

And I’m going to a Powwow in Baden next weekend.

I’ve hung out friends and helped my mom a little in our newly remodeled kitchen,

And I’ve gone to the car dealership to get a new key for my car.

The one thing I’ve not done a lot of, though, is rest…

And when a germ meets you with lack of rest, you often get sick...

And so I hit a brick wall yesterday and had to cancel my whole day because I was sick.

Just a cold with a cough. Exhausted. No voice.  

But still…sick.

It caused me to miss church in the morning, lunch with my brother’s family and a concert with my sister’s family in the afternoon…

And that made me sad.

But overall, I’ve had an awesome whirlwind of a month.

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to do all the fun things I’ve done.

And I’ve even learned a few things along the way:

 

1)     1. It’s nice to be able to mentally check out and let someone else take the lead ever so often. I knew that I could 100% trust Amy The Disney Lover to take care of the details and get me to where I needed to be on our Orlando trip, so I just blindly followed and felt no stress whatsoever. I was fully present with a smile on my face. And I was happy.

2)    2.  When at an amusement park, it’s nice not to have a schedule. Prioritizing what you really want to do and then just going and seeing what happens for the rest of the day makes for an exciting day.   

3)     3. When planning to walk around 10 miles a day, take blister bandages just in case.

4)     4. Getting a new car key is stupidly expensive.

5)      5, When entering a competition, it’s important to enter the right category. If someone suggests a category and you don’t feel right about it, then go with your gut. Your gut is usually right.

6)     6. Much of western European music was influenced by the music of Africa…yet African melodies, rhythms, and instruments often get left out of the discussion in music education. For instance, the major and minor scales came from Africa. They came to Spain via the slave trade, and the Spanish guitar then spread them throughout Europe. Neat, huh?

7)     7. North America was not some vast, untamed land that needed to be tamed by Europeans. It was a land lived upon and held sacred by Native American cultures. There were people here, living, surviving, thriving and we must not forget those people. Epcot: Do a better job with your American history!

 

The week to come is another busy week.

I’m hoping a day of rest yesterday will propel me through it all,

And that I will keep growing,

Keep learning,

Keep experiencing life…

For I know that it is a gift and

I am grateful.

 

Amen. 

In The Morning, In The Night

I’ve been calendaring all night.
Catching up on the things I’ve done.
Writing in events that are to come.
It’s a bit overwhelming—
How the little boxes on the calendar are filling up.
But it’s good, too, I suppose—
Knowing that life is full of opportunity—
If I can just keep seeing the full little boxes as such.

As the night comes to a close,
And part of me feels completely overwhelmed,
And another part of me knows that I’m not the only one,
I offer two haikus for you to begin and end your own busy days:

In the morning:
Good morning, my friend.
There is beauty in today.
And beauty in you.

In the night:
Good night, child of God.
Sweet dreams be yours. Rest restore
Your body and soul.

Today. And every day.
Every busy day of opportunity.
Amen.

Deliberate Waiting

On October 5, 2004, a colleague made me angry. She made her lack of planning my emergency and then blamed it on being busy. I promptly wrote this poem:

Bumblebee

We're busy.
Life is busy.
Everything is busy.
Busy, busy, busy!

But how hard is it,
Is it that hard?
To communicate,
share,
discuss,
or explain,
Expectations,
needs,
wants,
desires,
and to ask for help
In advance
not on demand,
not making lack of communication
an urgent problem?

We're busy.
Life is busy.
Everything is busy.
Busy, busy, busy!

I guess we should just rename ourselves
Bumblebees.

Over the weekend, almost all of the women on the women’s retreat stated that they needed to get away from the busyness of life. This morning, the intern who led the spiritual care staff devotion spoke about the dangers of being overly busy. This afternoon, I opened When The Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd and read about the dangers of being busy. I’m sensing a theme.

Busyness is part of today’s culture. In fact, busyness fuels today’s culture. Doing tasks quickly. Staying constantly connected. Desiring instant gratification. Eating fast food. The less time things take, the more things we can do. The more things we can do, the easier it is to avoid both the waiting and the unknown.

Busy.

Sue Monk Kidd writes, “What has happened to our ability to dwell in unknowing, to live inside a question and coexist with the tensions of uncertainty? Where is our willingness to incubate pain and let it birth something new? What has happened to patient unfolding, to endurance? These things are what form the ground of waiting. And if you look carefully, you’ll see that they’re also the seedbed of creativity and growth—what allows us to do the daring and to break through to newness. As Thomas Merton observed, “The imagination should be allowed a certain amount of time to browse around.” Creative flourishes not in certainty but in questions. Growth germinates not in tent dwelling but in upheaval. Yet the seduction is always security rather than venturing, instant knowing rather than deliberate waiting.”

Deliberate waiting.

During this season of Lent, may we each commit to combating busyness by deliberately waiting for life and circumstances to unfold.

God is in the waiting. Embrace God today.