Intention
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Time, where does it go?
Time.
Have you ever stopped to consider where it all goes? Working Mom's would tell you that their time is divide up as such: Five hours for semi-sleep, however, not to ever be confused with REM (rapid eye movement)because they haven't seen that since college. Two hours for Taxi driving, One and one half hour to prepare meals (yes, Wendy's and Donutland are considered prepared meals even if Mom's didn't prepare them personally), one hour forty-five minutes for bath and bedtime (presuming there are clean towels, corporative toddlers, no phone calls and no floaties in the bath water to which the three year old exclaims, "look Mommy, raisins"). Eight minutes of Honey time, nine to ten hours at the office and the list goes on and on.
We are each blessed daily with 24 hours of it. Some of us have more time to give in some areas than others do. Recently, I spent lunch with someone living with breast cancer. Her time allocation is completely different than mine. She spends a significant amount of her time with family, friends etc. Her priority is relationship building and maintaining. I don't expect many escape a conversation with her with out hearing how special they are to her. Another friend has spent several years in a corporate position with a Fortune 500 organization. She would spend about twelve to fourteen hours with office related business including networking, entertaining clients, reviewing spreadsheets etc. Her relationships tended to be more along the line of how the client and she could develop a win/win. There was typically little time for "deep" conversations as the "intention" didn't warrant it. More time was usually spent building trust and reviewing financials.
Do we applaud the "intention" of the cancer survivors time and shake our heads in disappointment at the business tycoon? If we parallel them we do. What if I told you they were the same person? Would that change our judgment? Are we empathetic with the working Mom who essentially has two full time positions or do we insist she spend more time "working the numbers"?
Time. Working Mom's wish they had more, business tycoon's wish it would go faster and cancer survivors are simply blessed to have one more day.
Have you ever stopped to consider where it all goes? Working Mom's would tell you that their time is divide up as such: Five hours for semi-sleep, however, not to ever be confused with REM (rapid eye movement)because they haven't seen that since college. Two hours for Taxi driving, One and one half hour to prepare meals (yes, Wendy's and Donutland are considered prepared meals even if Mom's didn't prepare them personally), one hour forty-five minutes for bath and bedtime (presuming there are clean towels, corporative toddlers, no phone calls and no floaties in the bath water to which the three year old exclaims, "look Mommy, raisins"). Eight minutes of Honey time, nine to ten hours at the office and the list goes on and on.
We are each blessed daily with 24 hours of it. Some of us have more time to give in some areas than others do. Recently, I spent lunch with someone living with breast cancer. Her time allocation is completely different than mine. She spends a significant amount of her time with family, friends etc. Her priority is relationship building and maintaining. I don't expect many escape a conversation with her with out hearing how special they are to her. Another friend has spent several years in a corporate position with a Fortune 500 organization. She would spend about twelve to fourteen hours with office related business including networking, entertaining clients, reviewing spreadsheets etc. Her relationships tended to be more along the line of how the client and she could develop a win/win. There was typically little time for "deep" conversations as the "intention" didn't warrant it. More time was usually spent building trust and reviewing financials.
Do we applaud the "intention" of the cancer survivors time and shake our heads in disappointment at the business tycoon? If we parallel them we do. What if I told you they were the same person? Would that change our judgment? Are we empathetic with the working Mom who essentially has two full time positions or do we insist she spend more time "working the numbers"?
Time. Working Mom's wish they had more, business tycoon's wish it would go faster and cancer survivors are simply blessed to have one more day.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
A Familiar Day
Being blessed beyond belief is something I see on a daily basis, however, have recently realized how many of us miss out because we lack taking time to pay attention to detail.
As working professionals, our day typically begins with a toddler's wet diaper, sassy five year old who insists on wearing shorts in the middle of a snow storm, a strong willed pre teen stating they just can't possible eat another bite of school food so "would we please fork over $5 for vendo-land?"
We haven't even made it to the bathroom ourselves to brush our teeth when the phone rings and it's our Mother wanting to know when we plan to stop by because she "hasn't seen us in ages". We continue to gently remind her, we actually do much more than she really realizes and had just been to see her two days ago. Then the dreaded guilt sigh comes barreling through the phone and she says "well, whenever you can find the time to come see me it would be nice." The conversation ends we shake our head as we jump into the shower and pray for hot water because the leak in the basement still isn't fixed.
We finally make it to breakfast and are ready for battle. Pancakes won't work, it takes too much time. "Who wants cereal?" We open the fridge to find someone has placed an empty gallon of milk on the top shelf. Our first thought is," Do we have enough money in reserve to fly to Cancun for the day?" We finally decide to pop peanut butter and toast into everyone and we are out the door.
Did we see our husband this morning or was that the water man checking the leak in the basement? Anyway, we are off and running the day has begun.
Blessings you say, what blessings? As our day's begin we often focus more on completing the task and less on the journey.
Take our toddler for example, did we see how he squealed with excitement when we walked into his room this morning? What about the way he put his finger up his nose then in our eye and said "eyes mommy eyes"? And as for the five year old, she wants to show us she is a big girl and really can dress herself even though she has no idea that we actually have seasons in the Midwest. Our teenagers are starving for our time, acceptance and encouragement. And even though our Mother's timing might be really really poor, we still have a Mother.
Being Blessed Beyond Belief is something I want to encourage each of us to look for on a daily basis. God says He has come to give us life and give it abundantly John 10:10. Being blessed isn't something that happens by accident. God wants to bless us and we need to expect it to happen.
How has God blessed you today?
As working professionals, our day typically begins with a toddler's wet diaper, sassy five year old who insists on wearing shorts in the middle of a snow storm, a strong willed pre teen stating they just can't possible eat another bite of school food so "would we please fork over $5 for vendo-land?"
We haven't even made it to the bathroom ourselves to brush our teeth when the phone rings and it's our Mother wanting to know when we plan to stop by because she "hasn't seen us in ages". We continue to gently remind her, we actually do much more than she really realizes and had just been to see her two days ago. Then the dreaded guilt sigh comes barreling through the phone and she says "well, whenever you can find the time to come see me it would be nice." The conversation ends we shake our head as we jump into the shower and pray for hot water because the leak in the basement still isn't fixed.
We finally make it to breakfast and are ready for battle. Pancakes won't work, it takes too much time. "Who wants cereal?" We open the fridge to find someone has placed an empty gallon of milk on the top shelf. Our first thought is," Do we have enough money in reserve to fly to Cancun for the day?" We finally decide to pop peanut butter and toast into everyone and we are out the door.
Did we see our husband this morning or was that the water man checking the leak in the basement? Anyway, we are off and running the day has begun.
Blessings you say, what blessings? As our day's begin we often focus more on completing the task and less on the journey.
Take our toddler for example, did we see how he squealed with excitement when we walked into his room this morning? What about the way he put his finger up his nose then in our eye and said "eyes mommy eyes"? And as for the five year old, she wants to show us she is a big girl and really can dress herself even though she has no idea that we actually have seasons in the Midwest. Our teenagers are starving for our time, acceptance and encouragement. And even though our Mother's timing might be really really poor, we still have a Mother.
Being Blessed Beyond Belief is something I want to encourage each of us to look for on a daily basis. God says He has come to give us life and give it abundantly John 10:10. Being blessed isn't something that happens by accident. God wants to bless us and we need to expect it to happen.
How has God blessed you today?
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