Like the Sands of Time
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A quote by Rumer Godden I read in Simple Abundance the other day said, “There is an Indian proverb that says every person is a house with four rooms: a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual one. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.”
That hit me. I don’t think I’m alone in saying there are not enough hours in the day for me to do everything I want. Just as the quote says, I want to work out, find time to read, have time to write, and time to meditate. Those are my four rooms, but I often find myself focusing on only one at a time.
Actually…
I’d also like to take a nap, but I rarely let myself do that.
At the end of each day, I look back to see what was good, bad, made me happy, made me feel accomplished, was irritating, or even something I wish I had handled differently. Those end-of-the-day feelings tend to carry over into the next and as much as I’d like to start fresh, sometimes it’s impossible.
But I’ve noticed that when I accomplish what I’ve set out to do, my next day begins on a much better note.
What’s the secret? How do we get to where we’re able to go into each room every day? Young parents certainly don’t have the time to do what they want because they’re taking care of kids, older parents are usually chasing kids with activities, and here we are, with very few excuses, kids out of the house, yet still unable to find the time to do all we’d like because there are meals to prepare, rooms that need vacuuming, clothes that need washed, and meetings to attend.
I think one of the secrets is a gratitude practice. As our day is rushing around us, tornado-style, we can stop in the middle of it all and simply be grateful for what is happening. How cool that we have co-workers we enjoy or kids who appreciate that we’re at their events, or a spouse who works out with us, thereby keeping us from sinking into the couch. Maybe we’re able to grab ten whole minutes before bed each night to read and three minutes to offer a prayer of thanks for all the good that surrounds us.
Gratitude is the secret sauce that keeps me putting one foot in front of another, even when the list of tasks seems endless. How hard is it to come up with three things every day? Not that hard. Now that we’ve entered the month of 50,000 events, it’s important to remember how sad we’d be if we didn’t have all these events to go to, and secondly, we've got this!