Life gets so busy

Life always seems to be so busy. When I was a child, there was always something more to do. I never managed to accomplish everything I wanted to do. One summer, after I got the reading bug, I read all the chapter books in the local library children's section. Some I liked and reread. Most were not particularly memorable and I ignored them. (This worried my parents so much that we went to summer camp every summer after this one.) This was not quite all I did that summer as I rode my bike to the library every day. At least I got some exercise, although my eyes were quite blurry by the end of each day with so much reading. This actually helped the term I took three history courses in college. That was a lot of reading every day.

As I grew older, other things were added to my days. Piano lessons, dance lessons, practicing, and eventually school sports all took a fair amount of time on top of the homework assignments.

Some people think things will ease off after they get out of school, but that really never happens. If you are truly living your life, there are always activities. Some of these are social. Some are family. Some relate to work. Some are for recreation. It is easy to over-schedule ourselves and our families. If we make informed choices, the busyness is manageable.

I read a number of blogs that help me keep my focus on simplifying the busyness in my life. I have cut back on some recreational choices so as to free up time for family choices. Right now, we are in a stage in life where we want to participate as grandparents. When we were both working, that was difficult. We often had to sacrifice grandparent responsibilities to work requirements. Now, we have fewer conflicts of that sort. I am grateful that I have more choice about which family activities I can join than I had when I was working full time. I look forward to this new season in our lives.

If you find too many sacrifices required, perhaps you need to assess what you are committing to that creates these conflicts. At times, we have few choices. At others, we have many more options. We can always choose, we just cannot always choose the consequences of those choices. I am grateful for the current options I have around me that allow me to choose the family more often.