Some Thoughts Before We Get Down to Planning for Next Year

Today some final thoughts before we start planning for next year. Next year? Sure. We've posted suggestions for planning for a number of years now. They begin next week and finish up before Thanksgiving. Tune in then and you'll see why we start so early.

For now, since we won't repeat our two rules for a few weeks, here they are again:

1. I will always take more time than is necessary to do everything. This is the way to avoid being in a hurry and getting excited.

2. Since I will invariably have more things to do than time in which to do them, and this prospect preoccupies me and gets me all worked up, I will cease to think about all I have to do, and only consider the time I have at my disposal. I will make use of that time, without losing a moment of it, beginning with the most important duties; and as regards those that may or may not get done, I shall not worry about them.

After noting last week various roadblocks that could hold up our progress in building our Interior lives, let's look at a world without those roadblocks.

We begin the day's work. Checking our rules, we're at our first task. Except for those items with immediate deadlines, we're not under any kind of inordinate pressure. We parse through our tasks, being sure to attend to the little details that sometimes escape us. Remembering we've set aside more time than is necessary to do everything, the pressure's off.

Oops, we catch ourselves in a moment of distraction (a potential roadblock). Squish! Back to our task. Or maybe a quick aspiration to help us refocus: Jesus, help me keep my mind where it belongs. Or, maybe, Saint Joseph, help me to be as good a worker as you were in your shop in Nazareth. With one or more aspirations, we can not only re-focus on our work, but we can acknowledge God's Presence. Nice.

As the day unfolds, we keep at this. And perhaps it occurs to us that we're conducting our lives much as the holy monks have done for centuries: ora et labora - prayer and work. Despite the waterfall of distractions that might distract us we keep our minds and hearts within these two bookends. We work, we pray. We pray, we work.

What about breaks? Of course. We take them throughout the day. And we can break from both prayer and work with a dose of recreation for mind or body, or both. But we keep our breaks within reasonable bounds. Then it's back to work and prayer, prayer and work.

Over time, persisting in our good work and prayer habits, done out of love of God, these weave their way into our minds, our bodies, our hearts, our souls. They become as natural as breathing. We don't think about them. We don't have to make a special effort to attend to either. It's how we live.

And why shouldn't it be? Is there something more important than these? If so, what might that be?

Okay, eating and sleep. What about family time? Of course. But family time, when we're truly present with our wife and kids, isn't something separate and apart from our work and prayer. It forms a continuum throughout our day. Our two rules help us here.

With our two rules, we can rest easy when the day is done. We can leave our work in its place and return home satisfied that we've put forth our best efforts. Being fully present, we can listen, talk, gaze, touch, enjoy enjoy our family with nary (or hardly) a thought about work. Ora et labora, with the help of our two rules, remain in place.

Okay, so it's a rather ideal picture. But what else should we shoot for if not such an ideal? And when we fall short, or slip and fall, we get up and start over. 

It's really not a bad way to live, is it?

Next week, on to planning...