I have officially missed my deadline for the WordCount Blogathon 2010. Technically, this is the second time I have missed my deadline, since I didn't officially write a post on the first of May.
Call me lazy (go ahead, do it), but I think sometimes the act of missing deadlines is important.
I visited with a friend today who, for reasons both in her control and out of it, has been struggling with anxiety. As we talked, I heard her saying that every activity she had, every bit of time she spent, had a purpose.
For the record, I am all for having structure and purpose and a plan for your day. But sometimes you just need to hang out and be dumb. My advice to this friend was to find some women she could hang around and not have to grow with, not have to learn from, not have to work her brain over.
"Sit and talk about purses if you want," I said.
And tonight, I could have stayed home and written one of those deep, thoughtful posts that has been brewing, but I went to Eric's and watched The Wire instead. And the time, I think, was well spent. I brought key lime pie.
You can't (or at least it's not wise to) be lazy every day. But by the same token, you can't have every moment scheduled and planned and full of opportunities for growth. Sometimes things have to calm down, lay still, and chill out. And as luck would have it, we grow in that.
What about you? What's your favorite way to be lazy? What do you wish you worked at less?
And by the way, the Bipartisan Cafe, on SE 78th and Stark in Portland, makes the best key lime pie I've ever had.
In college, I used to eat quickly, and run from dorm to class — not because I was late, but because TIME WAS PASSING, I MUST REDEEM IT. My girlfriend of the time wrote a song to me that said in part, "God's a god of peace, and you don't look too peaceful / Just be still and know he loves you, as does the one who sings this song"
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I can quote it decades later shows what an impact those words had on me.
Churches these days don't often teach about Sabbath rest. Why was it important enough to make the Ten Commandments? Maybe we are missing out on an important message, for ourselves and for the world.
Well said, very well said. I used to be involved with a church where every meeting or get together would have to involve worship or at least a long time of prayer. I never really connected with those people because I never got to see who these people were! All I saw was their Sunday and Wednesday night selves, which seemed a little more than holier than thou. When I asked why we couldn't have a time of just hanging out, they're reaction was basically (in not so many words) "why hang out with each other when we can hang out with God?" If that wasn't their attitude, it would be something along the lines of "we don't have time! Jesus is coming soon!"
ReplyDeletePie!
ReplyDeleteAlso this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Btc1fO_xg&feature=player_embedded
Jon and Aaron--it's so good to know you guys get where I'm coming from!
ReplyDeleteEric--we used to be friends. Why do you do this to me? ;-)