Important Work

Ever have one of those weeks where you could sit down with a pad of paper and a pen and easily write up three, four, five pages of things that need your attention, like, yesterday?

I am totally having a week like that. It's already Wednesday and it feels like I've gotten nothing done. Granted, sick babies throw a wrench in whatever plans one might have, and also I think this beautiful spring weather is adding to the more urgent feeling of godoaccomplishnownownow, but that doesn't change the still-not-done status of the to-do stuff on all my lists.

The chicken coop is probably only one focused day away from being ready for the peeps. There is a trip to the local plant nursery long overdue. If I don't make it to the grocery store today I'll have no coffee for tomorrow morning, and the house isn't cleaning itself. I'm sure everyone knows this music.

It gets a little hard to prioritize... until you push it all out of the way and let the priorities sort themselves out. The important stuff always rises to the top. Funny.

This morning we woke up to another beautiful day with the same opportunities to get stuff done as yesterday. Our lists waited, our errands waited, our chores waited (imagine that!). In letting our priorities sort themselves out we gained more than we bumped, to risk sounding cliche. What felt like sitting still (me) and playing (the littles) really ended up being important work for all of us. Rest. Recuperation. A good recharge.

So now, as the sun reaches into the woods and all around, stirring things up for another day, we'll be ready to make the most of it and get our stuff done! Yeah, we're having one of Those Weeks, but staying busy isn't the only way to take it down.

Sometimes the best way to work through the day (or week, or month...) is to take a moment and stop working.

After all...

"It is the quality of the moment, not the number of days,

or events, or of actors, that imports."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson