Chasing Squirrels

We have the happiest squirrels on the block. With four large walnut trees gracing our yard, dropping thousands of walnuts each fall, the squirrels couldn't be happier or fatter. Except when Bongo, our dog, decides it's time to play chase.

He rushes out the back door like a horse out of the block at the Kentucky Derby. He corners the squirrel, who by this time has bounded from the deck rail to the walnut tree branch, and they have a staring match. The squirrel always wins.

Bongo sometimes reminds me of me in the way I chase my own squirrels--those pesky and glittering distractions that catch the corner of my eye and before I know it--I'm off to the races. It's the habit that trips me up most from doing the "one thing" I need to be doing in my effort to become a single-tasker.

My squirrels are the things that distract me not only from the "one thing" but the "first thing" on my list. Squirrels are the things of lesser importance than what I need to be doing right now. They are often time wasters or, at best, not the priority I give them when I find myself running after them.

So--what kinds of things am I talking about? Oh, things like obsessing over returning every email in my inbox; day dreaming about conversations I had or might have, especially those with the potential for conflict; fretting over something bad that might happen; being perfectionistic about stuff that really isn't that important--writing the perfect email response, how I look, or how my home looks.

Sometimes I even deliberately chase squirrels to avoid what I need to be doing because of I feel some inner resistance to do it. Chasing squirrels can be a convenient distraction.

So, yesterday, as I did a review of my upcoming week by creating my mind map (a tool I use to visually organize all the parts of my life), I starred the things that need my attention today. I've already chased a few squirrels. Oh, well. At least I know it's time to return to my first things and take them on, one thing at a time.

What are the squirrels that you find yourself most often chasing? Do you know what's on your first things list for today?

One Thing at a Time

I read an article a while back that suggested when we multitask, we diminish our brain power to the same extent as if we'd had one too many beers. (For me, that would be one more than one.) If that's true, it's a little sobering (no pun intended) to think about the implications; most of us are stumbling around in a drunken stupor and don't know it. When are we not multitasking?

My New Year's Declaration to become a single-tasker (see previous post) has grown out of a need for balance and increased brain power. Perhaps like you, I have a diverse portfolio of work, even in a given day. I'm a congregational consultant, a wife, a writer, a spiritual director, an agent for a non-profit, a mother and grandmother, a cook, a friend, a facilitator and teacher and director of an urban retreat center. And sometimes, in a given day, I am all of them!

The only way I can keep my sanity and give my best and my all to each is to focus on "one thing at a time." In my previous post, I referred to Jesus' words to Martha:  "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41, 42).

"There is only one thing worth being concerned about" at a time.

To do that, here's where the battle is won or lost: It's hard work to put on blinders when I'm writing a presentation on my computer and see an email float into my inbox about something else that needs my attention. Or to ignore a phone call or text while I finish what I'm doing. Or to mentally brush aside a worrisome thought while I spend time praying and being with God. It's hard work--really hard work to single-task.And it's in those brief, innocuous moments where I choose to stay on task or multitask that I either find or lose my way.

This is my growing edge these days--to prioritize my "first thing" and choose to keep it as my "one thing" to focus on until it's finished or where it needs to be until I pick it up again. Most days I try and fail; but when I'm tenacious about single-tasking, I'm much more productive and fruitful than when I go back and forth from one thing to another. I also don't feel as overwhelmed and out of balance or waste as much time.

So, it's a new day and I'm ready to practice the wisdom of Jesus and be concerned about one thing at a time! And I'm hungrier than ever for the peace that comes from it. How about you?

My Intentions for 2013: Declarations for Becoming a Single-tasker

I like to organize my thoughts through a mind map. So, a few days before the new year began, I placed a bubble in the middle of my journal page and wrote, "My New Year's Intentions for 2013." And then I began to add bubbles around it and clusters of thoughts related to those bubbles. 

As I scanned my memory and wrote down ideas of what might become an intention to live into this coming year, I also saw a theme arise. Many of my bubbles had to do with balance--that elusive ideal I've often striven for in the past. Some bubbles included things like more consistent Sabbath keeping, improved self-care and planning margin--all things that have to do with balancing work with rest and play.  

But the obvious next question was "How?" How do I create balance or manage all the disparate parts of my life in a way that I helps me have some margin. As I considered the question, something came to mind that might be counter-intuitive to what you might expect to be an answer. It was the thought that I need to become a single-tasker. I need to learn how to focus on one thing at a time. It's trying to do too many things at once that creates the feeling of being overwhelmed and lacking balance.

Jesus had some things to say about single-tasking in the story about Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38-42. Do you know the story? Jesus was in their home one day along with a number of his disciples. He was teaching them when Martha, busy in the kitchen, interrupted him with a clearly annoyed tone in her voice. She asked him to tell her sister, Mary, to get up from her place sitting at his feet and come help get lunch on the table. Jesus responded with some pointed words. “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41, 42).

I’ve heard a lot of interpretations of this story, as you might have, but one application worth considering is Jesus’ suggestion that “there is only one thing worth being concerned about” at a time and if you discover that, it won’t be taken away from you. Mary was embodying the posture of a person who was aware of what was most important in that moment and she stay focused on it. She was a single-tasker. Martha, on the other hand, was a multi-tasker; she was worried about many things--a habit that creates the feeling that life is out-of-balance and overwhelming.

So, over the next few weeks, I want to think more deeply about what it means to be a single-tasker--to take Jesus' advice and be concerned about one thing at a time. I hope it will lead to a little more balance and peace of mind. Join me in this New Year 2013 as I write about "Declarations of a Single-tasker." 

Awaken Your Senses to Christ's Advent: Nostalgic Smells

"Often the strongest memories of our past are indelibly imprinted into our memory bank through our senses, especially the sense of smell." Awaken Your Senses: Exercises for Exploring the Wonder of God, pg. 158

We smell our memories. Like pine trees, snicker doodles, winter air, steamy hot chocolate, a fire in the fire place....those are the smells I remember and associate with Christmas. Each is stored in my memory bank and awakened during the Christmas season when I re-smell them and re-member them again. Smells are nostalgic.


Take a moment and think about the smells that are most memorable to you at Christmas time. What do you associate with each? How do you react to each? Do you remember when you first smelled them?

Now imagine the smells of the first Christmas; the smells of a newborn babe--a mixture of blood and vernix--that cheesy-white, sweet-smelling substance that covers a newborn; the pungent smells of a stable, complete with manure, gamey animals and earthy shepherds; and two parents saturated in the scent of the journey, of dusty highways and sweat and roadside bathroom breaks.

It's not quite the same bouquet of nostalgic Christmas scents, is it?It strikes me how antiseptic the Advent of Jesus becomes when we forget to soak in the scents of the first Christmas.

How can you and I live more deeply in the real story of Christ's Advent? Perhaps by breathing in the fumes of our world; the unfiltered fragrance of our own stables and then linking them with his.

Awaken Your Senses to Christ's Advent: Touching Jesus

"I was in my usual hurry to work when I spied a big, black, evil SUV sitting in the curb lane. The no-parking lane. The lane I use to get to the parking lot....What a doofus, I thought.... Sitting there I got more and more upset with this person who was blocking my way—my important way—down the street.Then just as the light changed, the big, black, evil SUV took a hard right across all four lanes of traffic and pulled into a parking spot. The driver climbed out and bounded up the steps of St. Mary Catholic Church. There he stood in front of a statue of Jesus. He reached up and began touching its face, its hair, the folds of the robe. My anger drained. Embarrassed, I glanced in the rear-view mirror as I passed. The man still stood there, touching, caressing Jesus. I felt foolish. I also felt humbled. I rush by that statue every day. Sometimes I see it; most times not. But here was a man who stopped just to touch Jesus." Awaken Your Senses: Exercises for Exploring the Wonder of God, pg. 117, 118

There's another man in the Christmas story who did the same thing. His name was Simeon. He was parked in the Temple, led there by the Spirit, because of an intuition that he would see the anointed one of God that particular day. So, when Mary and Joseph walked in, he saw Jesus in the arms of His parents, and "Simeon took Jesus into his arms and blessed God" (Luke 2:28). Here was a man who stopped just to touch Jesus, too.

These two stories, side by side, provoke some honest reflection and  invite you and me to ask:

• Where am I being led by the Spirit to find Jesus today? 
• Am I willing to stop what I'm doing in order to reach out and touch him?