I have a magnet on my refrigerator with several
statements that challenge me. I bought it at a time in my life when I was
emotionally fragile. It encouraged me, and, a number of years later, continues
to motivate me to take risks and grow.
The very first statement on it is “Live with intention.”
I’ve been thinking about that frequently, especially as life shifts yet again
with the pandemic. Last year, when everything shut down, I committed to use the
time as “Covid Retreat,” reflecting on what matters in my life, and what I
really didn’t miss. Now, as more and more activities come back on line, the
challenge for me is to be intentional about what I add back.
I’m not alone in this. Just this week I had a parking lot
conversation with a friend who was telling me all the meetings she had already
attended this week (it was Tuesday) and the reason I was seeing her then was
she was heading to another meeting. Yet she also talked about how much she and
her husband had enjoyed last spring’s shutdown, where she could have
unscheduled time guilt-free.
Why do we have to feel guilty about having unscheduled
time? I struggle with this too. And it’s why I’m particularly focused on that
statement “Live with intention.” I don’t want to simply jump back into the fray
of busyness because I can. Like falling in a rushing river, once I allow myself
to get caught up in the flow of busyness, it’s hard to extract myself.
To live with intention says to me that I need to be
conscious about what I am doing and why I am doing it. I’m reading a book right
now entitled, The Joy of Missing Out:
Finding Balance in a Wired World. Though its focus is about our reliance
(or maybe better said, our overreliance) on smartphones and the internet, it is
causing me to think about overall balance in my life.
At the end of the day, (in the literal sense) I want to
be able to look back at how I spent my day and know what I did and why I did
it. This is living with intention.
How are you handling the increasing availability of
pre-pandemic activities? Are you being intentional about what you resume? Maybe
it’s a good time to consider what are the activities that truly matter to you
and what is simply filler—not necessarily bad, but also not purposeful for your
life and health.
Thoreau said, “Wealth is the ability to fully experience
life.” Choosing to live with intention then, makes us truly rich.
