When reading your favorite novel do you ever notice how the characters you love never just have an easy time? Do they have days and weeks on end when nothing happens to throw their life upside down? Do they ever travel down the road they are on without obstacles? If so, it would be a dern boring book. Authors must learn how to throw things in the paths of their characters. Things that cause their characters to have to DO something: jump, turn a different way, change how they think, become enlightened.
When it comes to taking care of myself I seem to, not only have to climb uphill, but have to climb while a mudslide is coming down at me.
It’s a Friday morning, Daisy (my dog) is leashed and mumbling in a half whine half growl because she is excited to go, her tail is flying through the air, repeatedly smacking me in the face while I tie my shoes. We go out the front door, and turning up my mp3 player, I take a deep breath. I then place one foot in front of the other and pound my way down the street at a sluggish jog. Daisy is trotting in front of me making S’s down the sidewalk, back and forth, back and forth. We are no less than 4 houses down the street when Daisy follows some kind of flying insect into a cactus with her face. My attempt is thwarted by a crying, snuffling dog who must be taken home and doctored. Poor Daisy!
There are so many things that stop me from doing what I know is good for me. My list of tasks that are urgent often consume, eat, swallow whole, demolish, eviscerate, and engulf the tasks that are really important. Perhaps it has something to do with my single-parent status or the fact that I am observant and see when something needs to be done. I would like to find a way to tip the scales in the other direction and have a life full of meaningful accomplishments. I think I understand how priorities work for most people. It may look something like the chart below.
Urgent
|
Not urgent
| |
Important
|
Removing sharp objects that are lodged in your pets face.
Feeding your hungry child.
Putting gas in your empty gas tank.
Caring for a sick relative.
Getting to work on time.
|
Exercise.
Personal Religious exploration.
Teaching your child to read.
Maintaining and enhancing your natural talents.
Building healthy relationships.
|
Not Important
|
Being the 9th caller to a radio station to win free movie tickets.
|
Catching up on episodes of Doctor Who
|
I have a seriously strong desire to do more of the things in the upper right hand corner. I want to give more focus to the parts of life that are important but not urgent. The parts that often get placed on the back burner to simmer and evaporate until suddenly the lack of them is a problem and the pot is scorched. Perhaps that is why I write. And, even though I am horrible at it and fail frequently, why I attempt to gain an understanding, and some control over my uncooperative body.
Perhaps we are all struggling to find a balance between the important and the urgent. Having to find that balance may just be our life author, throwing things in our way to make us change.
