If I’m terribly sick on a Monday the world will continue to spin without my keeping pace. If one of my kids gets hurt, whatever project or pursuit I was in the middle of will take a backseat as I rush that child to the doctor and make sure they get the treatment they need. And if relatives from out of state show up at my doorstep, unannounced, whatever plans I had made can be altered to accommodate their visit. Ask me how I know.
Interruptions may be unexpected, but they are also routine— we can count on them, even if we can’t see them coming. They show us that we can stop.
The eclipse shows us that we can stop for good things, too, and not just those unexpected and unwanted emergencies.
The things that are important, but neglected, may need to reach emergency, this-only-happens-once-in-a-great-while status before we’ll pay attention to them. You want to spend time with your kids, your spouse, your neighbor; you would love to read that book, finish that project, write that story; you know time is slipping away and your kids will all be out of the house before you know it, and you want to create memories with them beyond the daily nagging and quick meals together.
This is cheesy, but maybe you need a total eclipse of the schedule, my friend. I know I do, and I’m not the busiest person around. I purpose to live a slower life, though a busy husband and kids and commitments conspire against me. I’ve cut things out of my life that are less important and pared down to my essentials and still, the list of things I “have” to do bullies the list of things God has called me to do.
If we want all the good, important things to come closer, between us and the blaring necessities of day in and day out, we have to make them an event. Put them on the calendar. Give the most important things a time and a place.
Remember when we stopped everything on a Monday and the world didn’t end? We can do that again.
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This article originally appeared at TrestaPayne.com.
