busyness

"Illuminated"
Morgan Weistling

i believe i posted about this some time ago, but i can remember being stopped at a stoplight and watching a girl walk down the street, chatting away on her cell phone. i thought, "she cannot even go for a walk without talking to somebody..." how far away from the quiet have we allowed ourselves to get?

i will not belabor the point of how busy i am, or how busy everybody else is, for that matter. but what i want to talk about are the things that make us busy.

how many of you have a cell phone?

computer? (obvious, i know)

fax machine?

iPod?

the technology boom has us so busy doing so much that it ends up we are hard-pressed to come to the quiet...and what on earth did we do to occupy our time prior to these gadgets?

when was the last time you went without going on the computer to *check your email*? (i highlight that because it is what i tell my family i am going to do...and it ends up i spend much more time here than i would were i simply checking my email!)

or when was the last time you left your cell phone home and did not turn it on?

regarding television: how much television do you watch?

is your thing uploading music? listening to music? purchasing music? how much time is spent doing this?

we live in a world that is so busy and so noisy, it really gets to me after a while and i am wondering if it gets to you?

if we are so preoccupied with the next telephone call we have to make or the next (insert your *next thing* here) we have to do, then how will we ever be able to hear that Still, Small Voice?

how many of you, how many of us -- can do without that *thing* -- oh, you know you have one, we all do -- that preoccupies us most of the time?

here is an additional thought: Ash Wednesday is only 38 days from now. i think part of my lenten fast will pertain to getting back to the quiet and it may very well mean that my computer time will be limited if not severely cut off. thing is, after you have done something for your betterment and replaced it with a good habit, it would make sense to continue after the holidays, which would be Easter sunday (a/k/a my birthday, tyvm, and the Papa's, too, truth be told...) so i don't know what i am really trying to say here.......it is between my computer time and my cell phone and i use my computer more than my phone.......

when i was on break the other day, a coworker was watching a televangelist who made the statement "if you are wondering whether or not you are happy, you are not busy enough." i sat there in disbelief. she repeated the statement. i wanted to whip out a pad and paper and write her a note saying "if you are too busy, then no wonder you are not happy!! you do not allow yourself time to come into the quiet of God's rest."

do you feel it as much as i do?