Busy Missing the Miracle

“Dear Great Great Grandchild,

I wish I would’ve grown more love, peace, and joy in my life and the lives of others. I wish I would’ve done more to heal and take care of humanity and the planet. I wish I would’ve loved and enjoyed it all a bit more. I wish I would've lived more fully in touch with the miracle of life itself.

But I was just too busy…”

I stepped out of a building on campus today and was struck by how perfect and gorgeous the weather was. 

As I started walking to the next building, I saw four adults in front of me, each walking while staring at their phones.

“Busy, busy, busy,” I thought. “They are missing the beauty and fullness of life within and around them.”

Then, myself feeling busy, I pulled out my phone to check my calendar for the day.

Seeing the irony of pulling my phone out in that moment, and after so self-righteously judging them, I smiled, put it back in my pocket, and thought, “Busy, busy, busy!"

What I then almost did was judge myself for being judgmental, hypocritical, and busy. Instead, I forgave myself, appreciated those inner parts of myself, and reconnected to the beautiful day I found myself in.

(Do you want to know a secret about Judgment and Love? Every time we forgive, bless, or otherwise release a judgment, we fall in love with what it was we were judging. So, in that moment, I got to fall back in love with myself.)

When we’re busy, we have important things to attend to! Who has time to breathe, to feel what the body feels, to be with what the heart is experiencing, to bring intentionality to our every thought?

Who has time to honor the profound beauty and sacredness within each of us and within each and every moment when we’re so busy, busy, busy?

And that’s one of the reasons why we stay so busy: it lets us off the hook.

I’m too busy to be responsible for my own well-being. I’m too busy to give my kids and colleagues the attention they really deserve. I’m too busy to be honest, to slow down, to pay attention and respect to the sacredness of my life and of life itself.

I’m too busy to feel and handle my fears of not being enough. I’m too busy to reflect upon and thank the Source of everything. (Gratitude itself is one of the greatest prayers possible.)

And when we’re too busy to be responsible for our experience of life, we get to blame somebody else for it.

Busy isn’t a doing. Busy is a way of being.

Here are a few alternatives to being busy. Before I share them, though, I want you to give up the right to say you don’t know how to do it.

So here are a few alternatives to being busy with a full schedule:

• Being responsible for my experience of life.

• Being intentional and engaged about my attention and focus.

• Being curious.

When Jesus said, “Heaven is among you,” he didn’t add, “unless you’re busy.” 

When we stop using busy as an excuse, we force ourselves to get real about the true source of our experience. 

Usually, the true source of our uncomfortable feelings are fear, insecurity, and lack.

And now we’re really getting somewhere. When done well, confronting these inner barriers to joy and wholeness gives us access to transcending them. 

Transcending our inner barriers to peace, love, joy, and wholeness matters more than living our great cultural excuse of being too busy to live our best life.

Much Love. ❤️