Business, the Enemy of Productive Work

Ok so last week's post was done while I was "talking" with Mom.  Truth is, she talks, I listen and say "uh-huh" every so often.  That is really what she wants.  She is an extrovert and my dad is an introvert.  I think the words build up in her and she has to get them out somewhere.  But I know multi-tasking is not effective.  I've even read the studies where they show that people who multi-task really don't do anything well.  So why did I do it?

I'm always amazed at how different aspects of my life frequently converge.  Of course I would say that is God trying to get my attention.  So there is a work and faith blog I subscribe to.  The theme this week has been we should work hard, yet we should remember to rest (like God did after creation) and as we see Jesus do in the gospels.  Yet being "busy" is not necessarily working hard.  I am reminded of this at work, if I will slow down enough to listen.  I have a resident who sees me walking quickly down the hall and he always says, "hurry, hurry, hurry".  Yet if I stop and really think, there is nothing on my to-do list that is more important than stopping to take time to talk with a resident, family member or staff member (sometimes, one in particular could talk to a wall about nothing).

No offense, but is the goal to post to this blog once a week really more important than really focusing on what my mom is saying, at least the first time around.  By time 2 or 3 I think I should get a pass to drift a little.  So what I ended up doing last week was achieving my goal to post once a week.  But the content of the post was meaningless.  And after I hung up from talking to my mom, I remembered that there will come a time when I will miss being able to talk to her, even if the same threads repeat  3 times every conversation.  I don't see it any more in assisted living, but I remember my days in the nursing home.  I know the day will come, unless something else happens, when mom won't talk any more.  And it's not like this is a new revelation for me.  I realized after my youngest graduated from high school that I had wasted so much of my children's young lives focusing on work, something that should be way down the priority list.  So again, another element of my life, yoga, is helping me to focus on the present.  Something I need desperately.

So I vow to stop trying to multi-task.  After all, if you think about it, what is really important in life is people and relationships.  I wish I had not had to waste almost 50 years to realize what was really important.  But then I don't want to waste any more of the present lamenting how I wasted my early years.  Work hard, but rest.  Focus on the present.  Be thankful for what is now.