Maybe it’s just me, but my feeling is that life is picking up where it left off pre-pandemic. This week’s already filled calendar was augmented with a little bit of this and a little bit of that thrown in all the cracks. Next week’s calendar portends a similar week. I’ve been looking at my “to-do” list at the end of each day and wondering if I can squeeze in an extra hour somewhere. The result of all this is a continuation along about three in the morning when I should be sleeping but wake up and rework the list instead. Obviously, this is not good practice, so I am taking up an excuse from Anne Lamott’s book, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope. In a whole chapter titled “Unplugged,” she says, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes – including you.”
I have prepared for unplugging. I have a printed list of the college football games being played on TV this weekend. I have started a challenging 1,000-piece fall jigsaw puzzle. There will be choir practice, Sunday school, and church on Sunday. The Saints play at noon with promises of pleasant weather the rest of the day to sit in the swing and read.
I’m looking forward to being unplugged. Oddly enough, I am also already looking forward to working again Monday morning, renewed and refreshed. I borrowed this idea from Anne Lamott. Feel free to borrow it from me if you, too, have trouble with your “to-do” list. Fill a bit of time with whatever makes you feel unplugged. No guarantees, but I’m guessing we’ll both work better afterwards.
I’ve yanked that plug!