I remember a while back somebody asked me if I was "getting everything done."
I assured them that yes, that I was coping, and then I got to thinking about this idea of getting ”everything” done.
Perhaps the question is a little bit silly because I'm not sure that we humans have a way to actually get everything done. If you think about it, most of us end up actually going into a pine box at the end of the line with lots of things that have been left undone.
Which leads me to ponder the possibility that part of our dilemma may be that we're simply trying to get too many things done, meaning that our particular version — speaking individually here — of everything is actually a completely unattainable goal.
Mrs. Denmarkguy is gone for the week, visiting a girlfriend in Spokane, WA. This means that — at least theoretically — I am in charge of doing ”everything” while she's away. And even if I don't feel particularly in charge of it at least I am responsible for it!
Her absence really makes me appreciate her daily contribution, while also serving as a fine example of how both people within a household likely live in a perpetual state in which their ”everything” takes up all available time.
So I'm sitting here thinking about the hundreds of books I have read about "living a happy and fulfilling life," and the great number of workshops and retreats I have attended over the years concerning that particular subject and the one thing I keep coming back to is that nobody ever includes ”idle time” as part of that particular formula.
Depending on what you read and who you talk to there is a substantial cultural subtext to suggest that time spent idle — or ”not doing” — is basically wasted life.
I have to admit that maybe this is something more prevalent in the USA than in other parts of the world… when I first arrived here from Europe in 1981 — from both Denmark as well as Spain where I had lived for three years — one of the things I most noticed was the fact that everybody always seemed to be ”doing” something, all the time.
I suppose I have just never had much of a natural inclination to be doing something all the time.
That said, for a number of years I actually did buy into this mythology of getting everything done, and placed a fair amount of stress on myself at the realization that I was somehow failing, and I was definitely not enjoying myself in my pursuit of always staying busy! After all, I thought I was doing the right thing...
So I have these days to myself, but there will be no idling... as there are bills to pay, and that requires the opposite of idling.
Maybe idling will come back into my life some day... perhaps when I have figured out how to live on less. Who knows?
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Sunday!
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Created at 2024.10.20 01:45 PST
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