The Disease of Being Busy

[Lodestar]

..."we are human beings, not human doings".

The Disease of Being Busy

I saw a dear friend a few days ago. I stopped by to ask her how she was doing, how her family was. She looked up, voice lowered, and just whimpered: “I’m so busy… I am so busy… have so much going on.”

Almost immediately after, I ran into another friend and asked him how he was. Again, same tone, same response: “I’m just so busy… got so much to do.”

The tone was exacerbated, tired, even overwhelmed.

And it’s not just adults. When we moved to North Carolina about ten years ago, we were thrilled to be moving to a city with a great school system. We found a diverse neighborhood, filled with families. Everything felt good, felt right.

After we settled in, we went to one of the friendly neighbors, asking if their daughter and our daughter could get together and play. The mother, a really lovely person, reached for her phone and pulled out the calendar function. She scrolled… and scrolled… and scrolled. She finally said: “She has a 45-minute opening two and half weeks from now. The rest of the time it’s gymnastics, piano, and voice lessons. She’s just…. so busy.”

Horribly destructive habits start early, really early.

How did we end up living like this? Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we do this to our children? When did we forget that we are human beings, not human doings?

MORE
http://www.onbeing.org/blog/the-disease-of-being-busy/7023

[Phentex]

1. There's no such thing as down time any more!

Some people can do this running from one thing to the next, eating fast food in the car, getting home and having kids do homework and then go to bed. I never could do it - for my own sanity. Sure, there are times when our lives are busy and it can't be helped. We are ALL busy! But I think many people bring this lifestyle on themselves to fill some sort of void elsewhere.