Want to mess with people? Tell them you’re not busy

This might be my most radical, rebellious,countercultural position but I am not busy. I refuse to be busy. I am just not going to do it. I’m not ready to give up gluten or sugar or caffeine or my microwave but I gave up busy.

I have a full plate- I work 30-40 hours a week. I actively parent 2 kids. I have two dogs, a cat, a husband, a house, a car, a business, and on two boards that need my attention. I sleep at very least 7 hours a night and exercise at very least 2 hours a week. The house is never clean enough, the paperwork is never done and there is always this nagging sense that I am forgetting something. But being busy wouldn’t help.

Busy is a feeling. Busy is what happens when you try to do too many things at the same time. Busy is doing something when you know you are supposed to be doing something else. Busy is refusing to be done for the day or accept that enough is enough. Busy is revving the engine in the wrong gear. Busy is writing checks that your body can’t cash. The minute I start to feel busy I see it as a serious alarm- time to let go of something, say no or just take a break.

I love to mess with people and tell them that I’m not busy. People kind of freak- who isn’t busy? What kind of person admits that they have free time and get to do what they want? How are you reacting? Mostly people deny it. “Oh, you are too busy!” They look for the loop hole in my logic. People do not see that busy is optional.

The most predictable, fair thing we have is time. We get 24 hour days. The sun rises tomorrow and if we are lucky, we get another day. No matter how much we do, their will always be more dishes and laundry and the house will not stay clean. For everything you check off of your to do list, two things will be added. For every email you return, another one will show up.  I have never met children who don’t want one more thing, need just a little more time. Our jobs will take all we give them. This is called life and it is an amazing and wonderful game to play but you have to play a winnable game.

You get to set the rules. You get to decide what life is about. If you are setting the bar, make sure that most days it is actually possible to get an A. Maybe you can’t get an A every day but mostly. Why wouldn’t you want to be generous? Some days you get up on the wrong side of the bed or just don’t feel on your game and maybe you admit it wasn’t your best effort…even a B- but you get another day and tomorrow you aim for the A.

Maureen