I've always thought of myself as a multi-tasker in work settings, listening to my voice mail while I do a first glance at the mail and keep an eye out for any emails with those little red exclamation points. But I've realized in the past couple of days that I'm also a multi-tasker when it comes to rejuvenation...and that may not be such a good thing.
Like most of us, my busy days give me little pockets of time for mind breaks: three minutes to read an interesting article online, four minutes to drink my tea while looking at the comics, thirty seconds to admire my pansies before shutting the door and starting dinner. This week, though, I'm spending time up at my parents' house between speaking engagements and I suddenly find myself with a whole 30 minutes and nothing planned. It's too long to fritter away checking the Washington Post online, but not long enough to dive into a novel.
I've already picked up a book of short stories, but I want to invite you to think with me about what else I--and we--could do during these longer-than-a-blog-post moments. I'm challenging myself to find ways to be quiet this summer: to take those thirty minutes and just sit outside, or walk and let my mind wander, or lie down and allow myself to exercise my imagination (possibly in the form of an actual dream while napping). Being quiet doesn't come naturally to me, so it really is a challenge. But I think it's worth it. After all, multi-tasking is okay in its place, but life really deserves our complete attention once in a while.
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