How many things can I do?

"How many things can I do.....and do well?"

This question has been repeating itself in my head again and again the past few days. I feel like there are so many parts of me that I want to keep in shape, that I want to work at so they don't get all fat and mushy! (We're not speaking literally here folks)! That's for another post! A big, ol' FAT post!!! :)

I'm talking about the strings of life that pull....some just a slight tug and others a more strangling type. Some that when knit together in the right way, create one-of-a-kind treasures. Still others that create webs that quickly and easily entangle us. Crazy, twisted, knotted Christmas lights entangled. And then suddenly you're that fly that Charlotte caught and it's too late.

I don't want to be a fly caught in the web of life.

The *weirdest* thing has been happening to me the past few months. When I walk into Paisley's nursery the SAME song is playing and even more odd, it's the SAME part of the song that is playing, and EVEN MORE CRAZY....it's the SAME SENTENCE. It's happened at least 7-8 times now and I'm not exageratting, (something I am gifted in). Do you want to know what God, (via Celine Dion) has been singing to me?

"Life is what happens to you
while you're busy making other plans!!"

It's been a beautiful nudge to my soul, this little quote. Something that stops me in my hurried pace to go-do-finish-go-do-finish. Well, I should actually say go-do-start-go-do-start, because I'm not very good at finishing through on things, I'm a starter! I have great ideas and then they are replaced with greater ideas, none of which ever hit the drawing board. Unless, for instance, one day I decide, (usually in the middle of making dinner or some other HIGHLY inconvenient time) to start something new!!! You know, like rearrange the entire living room and paint a quote on the wall while I'm at it. Not that this has ever happened to me or anything.

So, the question is: how many things can I do and do well? And I don't know the answer to that. ALL is know is that my children aren't a part of my "doing." They are to be a part of my "BEING"! Part of the nitty-gritty everydayness of life. They aren't my projects. They aren't the side show at my own personal circus, (well, sometimes they are)!!!! And on the other extreme, they aren't my LIFE either. There's a balance hidden somewhere in there and I'm on a quest to find it because, as said before, life IS what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Our pastor said a few weeks ago,
"God's a hand-crafter,

not a mass-producer."

Hand crafted things take time. Slow, purposeful time. I hope we are able to find/make some time to slooooow down and taste the sweetness of life this Summer. That's something I want to be mindful of. And I guess the question has now changed to~how many things can I NOT do? How many things really don't matter for eternity? Don't even matter for NEXT week? Lord, please open my eyes and my heart to the people and things that REALLY count in life.

"For fast-acting relief, try slowing down."
~Lily Tomlin~