Busy, busy

The first half of this past week we have had some lovely weather and I managed to get into the garden and plant quite a few things - a few potatoes, carrots, peas and garlic.  At least I have made a start and hopefully over the next days and weeks more will get planted.  The lawn has had its first haircut of the year and my new lawn mower got used for the first time.  The other day my son said that he wanted to help me in the garden.  This was a bit of a surprise as he doesn't really like gardening but I wasn't going to argue.  Maybe he's taken pity on his old mother!  He did a great job in cutting down an unwanted tree and I'm sure I'll find many more jobs for him to do.


The latter half of the week has been quite cold with a great deal of fog well into the afternoon.  But still the men came and finally mended the roof, replacing the tiles that had been dislodged and broken during the last storm we had.  Slowly but surely it seems that life is taking on a more pleasant aspect.  This week I also managed to finish the jigsaw puzzle that I started a couple of weeks ago.  The trouble is there are 2 pieces missing and so that is now going out with the cardboard recycling next week.   On the whole it has been a week like any other week - always busy, doing the odd jobs to keep the home running and even when not busy with some activity, there's planning, thinking ahead, sorting out and catching up with emails and blogs.  One blog mentioned about someone who had returned to America after living in a country with a much slower pace of life.  She commented how she noticed the difference:

I saw there was a direct correlation between an obsession with self and an exhausting pace of life, even when the obsession was on good, churchy things. ... ... centering an entire day around productivity or effectiveness as a goal equaled very little focus on other people.  On relationships.

(Taken from http://www.aholyexperience.com, post entitled 'Why slowing down is paramount if we're ever to be the Body.')


It's so easy to get caught up in doing and achieving that we don't spend time slowing down.  Even in the everyday, same old, same old.  It is so easy and tempting to fill every minute with some activity to improve our situation or at least not to appear lazy.  And even when physically we stop doing things our minds are often sorting things out so that we have slowed the body but not our inner selves.  We still don't give our minds the space to just be and soak up God or give our time and attention to really listen to people without our minds half listening and half focusing on the next thing we need to be doing.  As Christians our objectives should not be all about monetary gain and profit but about Kingdom values of relationship one with another and with God - a good lesson and one I need to constantly remember.