At F&L's dentist appointment the other day, the dentist was asking me about homeschooling (after I explained why we were able to come to an 11am appointment), and one thing leading to another, I remarked that I bake most of the bread we eat because, you know, I have the time to do it. The hygenist laughed and said, "That's the first time I have ever heard anyone say they have enough time! People are always talking about how busy they are!"
It got me thinking. I mean, we are busy. Homeschooling is one of the biggest misnomers of all time--we are not home very much--enough to make bread but I figure it out around everything else. But why is everyone is going around talking about being so busy? It is pretty safe to say that everyone is busy. It is a given of modern life thanks to all our time saving devices. So why even talk about it? Sometimes I think people are actually bragging about how busy they are--as if a full schedule is a way of determining one's importance. Who knows, maybe the opposite is true.
I also have been thinking about this after seeing the movie, "Into Great Silence" (see post below) that documents the lives of Carthusian monks who live in near silence and spend most of their time in prayer. And because I spent the better part of three days in a Zen sesshin a few weeks ago where I sat zazen for upwards of 14 hrs/day. During the movie and during the sesshin some of my thoughts were spent in wondering if this kind of thing--long periods of silent meditation--were worth anything at all to the rest of the world. Or was it only valuable as a personal experience? And if so, does that have any value to the rest of the world? I have no answers--three days of meditation left me with more questions than answers! But it made me decide to stop talking about how busy I am and start talking about my time in a different way.
I have decided that I am not busy.
I have time.
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