Livin'
the Good Life
“When
do people actually live their lives, given all the other things they
have to do?"
Barbara
Brown Taylor (Home by Another Way)
Barbara
Brown Taylor describes a day in the life of an average person—a
working mother with children—but it could just as easily be a
working father with children. She wakes the kids up, gets them
dressed and fed, while somehow managing to also dress and feed
herself. She drops them at school, and makes it to work in time for
her eight o'clock meeting. She rushes from one deadline to another,
one phone call and report to another, all day long, then picks up her children from school, and heads for home. She cleans up the breakfast
dishes, cooks dinner, helps with homework, gets the children bathed,
reads a bedtime story, tucks them in, and then returns to the kitchen
to clean up the dinner dishes. By the time she finishes it's
ten-thirty and she's exhausted, so she falls into bed and wakes the
next morning to do it all again. I feel tired just remembering this
scenario. So, where in there does she actually live her life?
Guess
what! This is it! This is real life. This is the living of it at a
particular season of one's existence. Yes, if we're lucky, there are
vacations, holiday trips, and visits with the grandparents to break
things up, but for the most part, time ticks along. One day follows
another, and there's not a lot of difference between them. In the
course of it, kids grow up, and you change from going to Kinder Care
to the soccer field, from Tiny Tikes Ballet to the big stage, but for
a large block of time, this is life. And, I must say, it's a good
life. I enjoyed almost every minute of it.
The
point is, if we're looking for life to take off like a rocket, and
be true to our fantasy, then we're probably going to be disappointed. On the
other hand, if we actually live everyday conscious that this time is
precious, this is my precious life, and it's filled with work, and
kids, and responsibilities, and they're all important, we may
realize that we love this life just the way it is. We are actually living
our days if they are approached with eyes wide open, and full of heart and
energy.
Today,
while you're running from one thing to the next, and wondering “when
do I get to live my life,” remind yourself that you are, in fact,
living it. Invest yourself in every second of it. There will be time,
eventually, to do what you secretly desire, and that will be good, too.
Life is good—even the hard parts.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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