A Season of Busy

It seems like our life is always in a season of busy.  And Christmas time seems to take the cake for being extra busy.  Most of what makes it so busy is fun.  Shopping, making, and wrapping presents.  Baking extra goodies for parties.  Decorating the tree.  I love the Christmas season and everything that goes with it.  As I was filling out my calendar at work yesterday, I had a moment of panic.  Christmas is in two weeks.  And we are starting Christmas with my family early, so everything for Christmas really has to be done by Friday, the 20th.  I started making a mental list of all of the projects I had to get done between now and then.  Mostly projects that can only make any sort of decent progress after Lyle goes to bed.  How in the world am I going to get all that done in a week and a half.

  

I have this bad habit of looking ahead at my calender, filling it up with duties and appointments, then feeling like the time is basically gone because I have filled it up already.  Then I stress to fit everything in, and I don't enjoy any of it.  

I had some blaring reminders yesterday and today, that although we all have responsibilites that must get done, we can also choose an attitude of joy through it all.  A sermon from church a couple months ago keeps coming to mind.  It was all about busyness.  Taking a look at what fills our plate.  How often when someone asks us how life is going, do we respond with "busy."  And it's almost as if we don't say "busy," then something is wrong.  We can't always control the busyness of life, but we can change our mental attitude of busyness.  We can be present in the moment, instead of worrying about the next place we need to go.  I can sit and play tractors with Lyle without thinking about the list of things I'm going to do after he goes to bed.  I can be grateful for the new ministry of the preschool at our church, and the work that we are doing to make that happen, instead of wishing I was at home instead of at another meeting.  So much of life is about the attitude we have towards it.

So here is to sitting in the glow of the lights of the Christmas tree, smiling with love for my family as I sit at my sewing machine crafting their presents, and soaking up every moment of the Christmas season I love so much.