Where has all the time gone? What have I been doing with my time?
Sometimes it seems as if I get caught up in all the things I have to do and don't get to the things I really want to do... even more than that, I don't get to just living in my life. That's how wrapped up in doing stuff I am. I forget to Be.
Megan Pincus Kajitani has a great post about this on her blog. She talks about a button she has had hanging over her desk for inspiration.
To do is to be. -Socrates
To be is to do. -Plato
DoBeDoBeDo. -Sinatra.
Now, I have heard this little saying before, and laughed at the wit, but today I'm wondering if Sinatra doesn't have it right?
Sometimes we need to focus our time and energy on Doing, and take care of all those things that pile up, all those little details that must get done for us to move forward, all the work that gets us homes and dinner and a few luxuries.
Sometimes, though, we need to just be in our skins. Lay out in the garden and watch the clouds float across the sky. Dance with the babies and laugh and feel the music. Enjoy the conversation with loved ones, maybe a glass of wine. Be at peace with who we are and where we are, right this minutes.
But maybe living is the dance between the Doing and the Being, and there's no reason to get hung up in one or the other. No reason to think you SHOULD be Doing something or you are a failure. No reason, even, to think that you should really be Being every single moment of the day. (It would be nice to live in mindfulness 24 hours a day, but realistically, I am not that enlightened, and I still have to sweep the floor.) And forget about all the Having and the not Having and how you feel you should have that car that Wii that pair of shoes.
The main point I want to remember for my own mental health and future and present creativity is that where I am is just fine. What I am doing is just fine. Who I am is great. It's all part of the story, the dance, the music of my life, even when I am stumbling.
So to Megan's quote, I add another.
You are the music while the music lasts. -T.S. Eliot
I guess we might as well enjoy it.
I love that quote by T.S. Eliot...this blog comes at a time when I just realized I'm often working so hard I forget to live...thank you for the reminder. This is inspiration - thank you for inspiring me. You've given me fantastic food for thought!
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