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This new
semester has started out, in a word, busy. I have more work
this semester than I've had in years--more demands on my time and
energy than I've had to go through in a very long while. If
you had told me six months ago that this would be the case,
something in my mind would have reacted in dread, for to tell the
simple truth, I'm very selfish about my time. I like relaxing
and breathing deeply of the autumn air and going for walks with my
wife in the afternoon. Instead, I'm never home before six in
the evening, and two nights a week I have soccer games with the team
I'm coaching, so I don't get home until 7:30. Another evening
I'm with a student late, so I don't get home until seven. My
lunch hours are taken by runs with the cross-country team. In
short, many of the things I'm used to are gone, replaced with a full
schedule that allows little flexibility.
In theory,
this should be a very negative situation for me. If I were
thinking about it from outside the situation, I would hate the
possibility of being so busy. But now that I'm right in the
middle of it, I find that my mind and body are coping with it very
well. I'm there in the middle of it, and there's nothing I can
do to change it, so I'm finding the best in each hour that I spend
doing my work.
I realized
yesterday that I'm even kind of enjoying it--it keeps me busy and
productive, and I'm accomplishing a great deal. It's kind of
fun.
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You see, I
could spend my busy time wishing I weren't so busy. I could
spend my hours wishing I were elsewhere, or that I didn't have the
four o'clock class coming up. I could focus on what I'm not
doing, and make myself miserable in the process. I'm finding
that it's much more productive (and fun) to focus in the moment I'm
in, for there's absolutely nothing I can do to change it--I have to
be there. So I can be there enjoying it, or I can be there
being miserable. It's my choice.
I see this
partly as a result of the Gulf War. I was in the army then,
stationed in Germany. Because half of the people on our post
got sent to the desert, our duties dramatically increased. We
had two-three times the work to do, and half the people to do
it. Because of this, we were on a 12-hour-a-day,
six-day-a-week schedule. Our particular job site was 45
minutes from where we lived, and the buses got us there early and
left a bit late, so we didn't have much free time at all--our 14-15
hour days left little time for anything else. The situation
had the potential to make me miserable, but it didn't.
One of the
most important lessons I learned from that time was to accept things
as they are, and not worry or wonder about how they ought to
be. If a situation is out of my control, then it's out of my
control, and I have to accept it and do my best to thrive in the
situation as it is, not try to make it as I want it, and be angry or
frustrated when my efforts prove to be in vain.
Of course,
there are other situations that are within my control, and part of
the trick is being fully aware of which is which. If I can't
do anything about it, I don't try, and I don't lose my peace of mind
beating my head against a brick wall. If I can change it, I
try to: if I succeed, fine, and if I don't, fine--at least I
tried.
I see so may
people who complain and make themselves miserable about things that
are completely out of their control. They don't recognize that
things last for a season (this semester WILL end, and the Gulf War
couldn't go on forever--even if it did, my enlistment period would
have ended), and that the best thing that we can do is make the best
of bad seasons and enjoy the heck out of the good seasons.
Think of farmers living through droughts--they have many lessons
they could teach us (at least, the ones who make the best of it do).
In both of my
situations that I've mentioned, it's also helped me to keep a
healthy perspective: yes, I'm busy and I have no free time,
but at least I'm busy. That means I have work, and an
income. I have a place to live, food to eat, and even some
extra money for some extra things. I'm fortunate enough to
live in the richest country in the world in the richest era the
world has ever seen, and I have more than most of the wealthiest of
my forefathers ever had. Where I am is busy and hectic at the
moment, but I'll take my weekends and make them as restful as
possible, and I'll get through this season, and then enjoy the
fruits of the season.
It's all up
to me, and how I do things and see things.
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