"Mistrust Your Sense of Urgency"

Like many of you, I am emerging from my den of “Wow, that was Sure a Full Couple of Months!” I have been either chased by or chasing my calendar since the middle of October. We’ve had a plethora of family get-togethers (we all have birthdays at the end of the year), plus somehow all my dental/medical checkups/appointments ended up around now. Most things we did or attended over the holidays were rich and good, but it still filled days and kept me feeling a little spinny. (Or was that the cough syrup?)

This morning, while reading a book review that has nothing to do with what I want to say (I’ll put the proper URL at the bottom of this to give credit to the woman who wrote it), I read this phrase. “Mistrust your sense of urgency.”

“Mistrust your sense of urgency.”

It made me consider how fast my mind goes, how I make a daily to-do list on paper … but don’t doubt that I also have a backup list burning in my soul. The one on paper reminds me to tutor at the elementary school today plus bring up the laundry from the basement. The internal one reminds me to not miss All the Deeply Meaningful Things Before I Die. (I blame WAY TOO MANY altar calls in my youth. How many times can you ask a third grader where she will go if she dies tonight – without messing with her head forever?)

Resisting urgency does not mean we won’t attempt hard and important things.  It does mean we can tamp down our panic at the greediness, destruction, and self-serving politics around us. We can try to figure out our ways to respond without living in knots. We don’t have to fix everything. We just have to do what we can do. While living our lives and taking out the trash and reading books and keeping the kids safe.

Right now I am going to resist my sense of urgency to write more. This phrase will either make sense to you or it won’t.

For me? These are things I am going to do this week to resist false urgency

1. Not going to wear my pedometer for a week. 

2. Not add any anything to this week’s calendar unless it involves kids or hiking.

3. Not put anything else on a numbered to-do list.

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The quote was from this unrelated but interesting review of why a writer wrote a crime novel. https://crimereads.com/the-true-crime-story-that-changed-my-life/