The truth is, I'm not as busy as I would usually be if we were still living in a pre-Covid-19 world. Usually up to half of each day I worked was engaged in one-on-one relationship building.
At least once a week, I visited and spoke at length with different businesses owners who operate stores on the City Square. Visits to the library, at least two restaurants a week . . . not to mention visitation in homes or at the hospital. I usually was able to engage in a couple of meetings a week, either in the community or at the church.
Today, I spend most of my time at a desk, at home or in my church office. Visitation has been replaced with phone calls and text messages. I took a bit of a risk and broadcast my cell number so our senior adults would have it, especially those who do not own home computers or smart phones. Surprisingly, we mail out 40 weekly newsletters and email another 90. The 40 we mail are folks who do not have an email address.
Another minor issue is my cell number is a different area code than the one here locally. It is amazing how many times I call someone on my cell phone, and get no answer, and then I call using the church phone and they pick up right away! Such is life in the country. Interesting fact, the folks without email addresses or computers are feeling a bit left out, and I can completely understand how that can happen.
All in all . . . my week still progresses pretty normally, except for some extra time on my hands now and then.
Let's see, how to spend extra time when you can't really travel anywhere and your doctor tells you to not get out in public much?
Reading . . . reading is an essential element in every pastor's life. A pastor has to read. Our minds needs to be expanding, and reading the books that others have written provide for this. I've been reading several books on spiritual formation, a great pictorial book about Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, a book on the true meaning of Gospel, a book about starting over in your 60's, and a re-read of The Bullet Journal Method.
Sabbath . . . most pastors do not practice Sabbath the way it was biblically intended. However, Sabbath is something you can experience in a wide variety of ways. My newest enjoyment of Sabbath . . . taking a nap, especially on Friday and Saturday.
Gardening . . . my wife and I have a small raised bed garden, with actual raised beds on legs and about a dozen five gallon buckets and three whiskey barrels. We've harvested and eaten squash, zucchini, okra, green beans, black-eyed peas, banana peppers, garlic . . . there are 3 eggplant almost ready for picking. It is a great feeling to produce from "farm to table." Everything has been quite tasty!
List-making / project planning . . . I built myself a 4'x8' workbench in our garage, and have built a garden bench and a small end-table for the back porch. I have a list of some things I want to try and build, as well as some things I need to repair or retool. I have a plan to reorganize my tool closet, and a plan to rearrange the garage . . . all in due time, and when it's a little cooler.
Time is so precious . . . and keeping active is just as important. I fear that some people are not dealing with time as well as others in this Covid-19 world. I expect to hear "I'm bored" from kids, and from teens. However, I don't expect to hear it from adults. Surprise surprise! I've heard some adults complaining about being bored . . . and they haven't asked me for my advice. I wonder if they are bored, or just not happy about things not going like they want them to.
Perhaps in the end, it's all about coping skill???
Rick ><>
2 comments:
Sounds like you're still staying pretty busy and the garden is looking great and sounding delicious. When Mom mentioned all the abundant basil my mouth started watering thinking of all the wonderful ways I could use pesto if I could get my hands on it.
I've been reading a lot lately too. I put daily reading as one of the positive habits I wanted to set for myself during all this social distancing. You would be surprised at how little reading your formerly bookworm daughter had actually been doing the past few years. Well, my dry spell is officially over and I'm getting in about an hour of reading time per day. I took my time with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and simultaneously read a new book called The Art of Showing Up, Both of Marie Kondo's Books, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and Spark Joy, a Terry Pratchett book that I somehow missed the first time around, and a book called The Five that is about the lives of the 5 women who are considered the canonical victims of Jack the Ripper. That one was really quite fascinating. I also listened to a self-help audiobook called The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck, and I have to concede that I do give vastly more F*cks than I should about way too many things, and though it was very satirical in its style I took some good material away from it. I just started one you might like called The Happiness Hypothesis from which I have already gleaned a lot of new information about how the various parts of the brain work and why they play the roles that they do, and how to overcome the negativity bias that some of us have been born with (I tend to lean to the side of being risk-averse, but I'm not going to be jumping out of planes any time soon though).
This weekend's plans include Tidying the kitchen, a la the Marie Kondo books, which is probably going to be overwhelming, but at the same time, is something that we REALLY have needed to do for some time. The garage is next after that, so be prepared for a barrage of text messages asking if we can throw stuff away. LOL.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the adult boredom observation. We live in a time when we have access to 24/7 entertainment. Books, movies, TV shows, video games, social media, etc. We have opportunities to learn new an endless number of things in the comfort of our home every day through Youtube, Pinterest, and online courses. We can buy essentially any good we need online to be delivered very quickly to our house. There is no excuse for boredom.
I think I know what I like to read. At least I think I know what I like to read, and that is biographies. I haven't read one in a while.
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