Last weekend was the $10 bag book sale at our local library and we made out like bandits. In the mad rush of fellow bibliophiles grabbing titles off the shelves and shoving them into bulging bags, I snagged a copy of Present over Perfect by Shauna Niequist. I started the book Saturday afternoon and finished it Sunday evening. Needless To Say, I’d highly recommend it.
In the same vein as some of my other favorite books, Necessary Endings and Essentialism, Shauna provides a raw view of her journey from busyness addiction to whole self healing. There were plenty of chuckles along the way and I interrupted my husband’s reading at least a half dozen times to share a particularly poignant passage.
What really struck me about this book; however, wasn’t the funny anecdotes or deep wisdom. As I read Shauna’s story of hustling to the point of exhaustion, I saw myself–but not my current self. I saw my high school self and my college self before senior year. After three years of literally running from classes to meetings to events, I knew exactly how far I could push myself and what I was able to accomplish. In my last year of college, I wanted to find out how little I could do and still be a productive, well-rounded, grounded, contributing, and happy soul. I hunkered down in my underground single dorm room, went to bed at 10 pm and exercised as much as I wanted to. I still do that and it’s wonderful.
Not to say that there aren’t days when I let the lust of others’ affirmation and the pride of being a do-it-all direct my steps and steal my joy. But those days are few and far between nowadays. Just the other day, Luke and I looked at each other and realized: we have more than enough time. How crazy is that? Each day feels sufficient for the work, play, walks, reading, and reflection that we desire and there’s often time left over to let the mind wander.
After watching this Ted Talk with Laura Vanderkam about time management, I made a personal vow to never say “I don’t have time for X” when I really mean “I am not prioritizing X right now.” It’s forced me to be more truthful with myself and others. We always have time for what we prioritize, irregardless of whether our priorities are aligned with our long-term goals and happiness.
I have this idea that at some indeterminate point in my past, I enjoyed quality time with my closest friends while attending a continual coffeehouse and the charms of my hometown. The reality is, many of my closest friends from college graduated before I did. School was stressful and cafeterias are inhumane and I was more likely to be serving coffee than sipping it in acoustic bliss. Not only that, but I have dear kindred souls from childhood and high school and none of them are ever in the same place at the same time. And if I walked through the streets of my hometown, very few would remember my name or face.
used to take you an hour have about 10 minutes of scheduled time to get done. You will manage your time or you will lose it, along with your sanity. Yet even though the time has compressed and the clock’s hands seem to be racing to see who can get there fastest, there is no other time zone I’d rather be in. It’s amazing what you can get done in a minute when a minute is all the time you have.
Chloe J Sayers 