Oh how we can get so many things accomplished each day… How many of you can recognize yourself in that picture? And, at the end of the day, do you pat yourself on the back for your many completed tasks….or do you collapse into your bed feeling exhausted and drained?????
‘Oh, if I only had one more hand I could carry all of the groceries in the house at once and turn the doorknob…so they weigh fifty pounds and my wrists are ready to fall off…’
‘Oh look, I can talk on the phone and cook dinner at the same time….so what if my neck is permanently cocked to one side?’
‘Oh how wonderful! I can talk to you and text and answer emails all at the same time….so what was it that you were saying again?’
Sound familiar????? This is so often what our lives look like these days. So much can get done, and yet so much is missing.
Maybe I should take multiple trips to the car for those groceries, or perhaps buy less and have fresher produce.
Perhaps I should just sit and have a phone conversation and only a phone conversation, and appreciate the person behind the voice on the other end.
Maybe I should concentrate on one person at a time so that I can not only hear, but listen, really listen to what someone may be sharing with me.
And perhaps, at the end of the day, I may not have everything on my list checked off, but I may smile because I shared my time that day with someone I really care about!
Reflections on the Journey 
Brilliant post, Andie!!
Now I will close the lid to my laptop and simply drink my tea.
I find Andie that my day has been good when I have taken a moment for a time of silence at the beginning of the day. Then my day unfolds usually in a manner which feels good at the end. I may not have done everything I wanted to do, but there has been a leitmotiv of peace throughout the day. When I don’t take the time to stop early in the day, I reach bedtime frazzled, grumpy and dissatisfied…
Awe, your post is too familiar!I am not much for resolutions, but this year I added something to my daily prayer, this is it “Lord help me to really be present to those you put in front of me, as You are to me”.
Great post Andie
I have the disability of not being able to multitask. I just cannot! Thank goodness I’m retired and don’t have stringent deadlines.
I like your idea of concentrating on one person at a time so as to listen carefully and appreciate him or her. I tend to “live in my head” and am not a “people person” by nature. Lately I’ve been moving more towards focusing purposefully on others and appreciating them as made in God’s image.
Thanks be for the gift of multi-tasking but you are right – sometimes it gives us the excuse we need not to sit and stare, or sit and listen. There seems to be a lot of wishing life were simpler and easier to manage with friends at the moment. Maybe the longer summer days are already too filled with ‘stuff’?
There was a study done (of course, there always it) but it was saying that multi-tasking is really not good for you, it produces stress and physical issues as well…I was so glad to hear that. I don’t like multi-tasking at all, I have to do it too much at work to do it at home too! Lori
I’m a major multi-tasker. I tried to go on a mult-fast task for Lent, but pretty much failed. I’m particularly guilty of being on the computer and trying to have a conversation with my husband or one of my kids. It’s not pretty.