Unused land.
Nobody was farming it or building on it, at least not to
potential. Nobody was planning it. So the colonists took it upon themselves to
educate the Native Americans. They “educated” them on how to use that land more
effectively, more efficiently, more completely. Basically, they taught them to
multi task, assuming that the slow paced solo tasking they were observing was
an error to be fixed. A sign of lower awareness.
It never occurred to them. Maybe this solo tasking was on
purpose and held wisdom.
Just maybe they were simply letting it BE land. They
danced on it for celebration and sadness. They let their animals feed upon it
to thrive. While I’ve never read about it specifically, I can only assume they
let their children play upon it in their daily life. It would be consistent.
Today’s society is all about multitasking. We use our
smart phones to check our email and text our friend to confirm tomorrow’s plans
while food shopping. And then we wonder why we forgot half the items on our
list or bought the decaf coffee by accident. We find a few hours of “free” time
and we pack it to the brim with our essential “to do” lists, then feel
frustrated with ourselves when we don’t complete our totally irrationally lengthy
lists.
Yeah, that sounds like wisdom to me. Not. And yet we
persevere, creating more and more technology to increase our chances of
success. It’s like it has never occurred to us to cut our lists in half or to
simply drop our expectations.
And don’t get me wrong. I’m not judging. Ok, maybe I am.
But I’m judging myself as well, so I feel a little less judgmental.
The other day, I dropped my kids off at their afternoon
preschool, like usual. Normally, this is followed by racing to my car so that I
can use my “free” two hours as effectively as possible. I do laundry, clean the
house, plan dinner, send a few emails, run errands and make those business
calls that I just can’t complete with two kids in the house around my ankles. I
even put these lists into my calendar in the absurd hopes that I will complete
it.
I know. I’m insane. But I’m in good company, if that makes it more
forgivable.
That day, however, something happened. One of the other
moms and I made a passing comment to each other at school drop off and a
conversation developed. A really fun conversation, by the way. The daughter of
this mom, a wonderful little girl, loves my daughter and my daughter loves her.
They run squealing to hug each other when they see each other every day. It’s
pretty cute.
And so we chatted. About kids. About life. About men. About
shopping. You know… we just chatted. And we both cracked up more than once.
Then, I went home and instead of going into my house, I went to my neighbor’s
house. She just had a significant surgery and is housebound during the recovery
period. I had just received an email from her that she was ready for visitors
and that I should stop by whenever.
And so I did. I mentally dropped my VERY IMPORTANT “to do”
list and chatted with my neighbor. It was great. By the time I left, she was
laughing and I felt a thousand pounds lighter, despite not having been “productive”.
My headache even went away. Imagine that.
The laundry waited, it wasn’t going anywhere. The emails
I hadn’t replied to weren’t going to delete themselves in the next 8 hours.
Dinner could be a hodgepodge of leftovers and nobody would complain. My
neighbor, however, was recovering RIGHT THEN. Not later. And we both needed
some good, healthy socialization to feel more human.
Who says I didn’t use my time well? I think I used it
perfectly.
