Not So Busy

While I love the onset of autumn, I dread the approach of fall. The one is a season of crisp weather, crunchy leaves, apple picking and pumpkin lattes. The other is the return of Life in full force...with all its tight schedules, deadlines, and demands.

I updated my weekly calendar this morning, and ever since I've been battling the temptation to crawl under my desk and hide my head under my cardigan. Leaving aside my full time job, there are the five high school seniors who will be wanting my attention to their English, Religion, and Government papers, as well as monthly half-hour phone calls; the CCD class JM and I will be leading; the youth group I've promised to help out with at least once a week on Wednesday nights; the piano students on Saturday mornings; the women's Bible study I finally (and I think rightly...but time will tell) signed up for; the women's singing group I'm trying to organize on a monthly basis; and the writing exercises I have set for myself as a kind of challenge. The complaint never changes, and it seems to grow a little louder and more panicked each year: "I'm so busy."

We're all so busy. But here I make myself accountable, oh readers: there are some good, leisurely things I intend to do this school year, despite the fullness of my calendar. Like apple picking one Saturday morning in October...at least a little bit of hiking (or a long bike ride) one weekend afternoon in November...an afternoon of making and sending Christmas cards in early December...and now and again spending quality time with good friends, either enjoying dinner at my apartment or meeting up somewhere in town for coffee and good conversation. I'm not so busy that I can't spend quality time doing simple, fun things with the people I like best. And if I get to that point of being busy, then I'll have to make some serious cuts in my calendar of commitments.

So friends, I promise: no complaints of being "so busy." I'm busy enough to keep on my toes, and just "un-busy" enough to snatch a few precious moments of leisure to spend just as I like. I refuse to spend the next seven months running with such frenzied haste that I forget to stop and enjoy the moment.

Here's to the coming autumn. Here's to (*gulp*) the coming fall.