Saturday March 11 2017  MORE ACCOMPLISHED BY DOING LESS

 

MORE ACCOMPLISHED BY DOING LESS

Kathleen Martens

March 11, 2017

www.visionsofpoetry.com

 

Time passes all too swift.

Good intentions seem to drift.

So much to do that calls my name,

But heart’s desires seem to wane.

 

So much sits on the shelf

Of what I desire to do for self.

Not just for me, but to do for others.

Yet life’s busyness seems to smother.

 

Letters to write and get in mail,

Pressing matters cause that to fail.

Keeping track of distant friends,

Undone, because of days quick end.

 

Little touches of extending a hand,

Thwarted by the urgent taking command.

So how to stop the treadmill race?

And once and for all slow my pace?

 

How do I make my days include

All it is I want to do?

A wise friend says: “SLOW-UP”

And I so desire to drink from that cup.

 

Not so I can just be lazy

But so I won’t go crazy.

I need slow down to have more time,

So with friends my hours combine.

 

And when tired I should take a rest

That in hours remaining I give my best.

More accomplished by doing less

Is something I must certainly test.

 

I’m still learning in reverse.

Perhaps life will be less terse,

That more hours will be in my day

When I can again go out and play.

 

Oh, woe is me!  This poem sounds like I’m complaining.  I guess I am, yet not intentionally; just speaking facts the way I view them.  I think it is the overwhelming task of downsizing which disrupts what I would rather be doing.  I recently read the following statement which I must paraphrase because I can’t really remember the exact words or where I read it:  “Living life only begins when your house is in order”.  And for me that about sums it up. 

I still desire to have people over, entertain, and take time to relax with friends.  At the present it just takes so much effort because of everything else that I am involved in.  I literally must plan when I am going to shop for the food needed for preparation.  Then I must make an appointment for myself on my weekly calendar in order to allow the time needed to prepare the food.  I choose to entertain because I so enjoy it and take pleasure in the friends who come over.  It gives me the needed reprieve in my never ending charade of downsizing.  Perhaps the word “charade” is not the exact description but sometimes I feel as if the word fits. 

Between having two weeks taken over by the replacement of our heating system, moving two rooms of boxes and furniture out of the way for painting, then moving more furniture and boxes out of five rooms for carpet cleaning, and straining my back at the gym, the toll caught up with me.  I think when all is said and done it was the pain of my back injury that caused my unraveling.  I am not used to being limited in my movements.

But you know what?  Even while suffering the pain, and perhaps because of it, I have much for which to be thankful.  I have learned some valuable lessons.  I think I had forgotten what it must be like for others that do not have unlimited energy and stamina.  Perhaps I even lost touch with others who suffering pain in so many different ways, and some who suffer in many ways.  Since Monday I have had to come to a halt in order to deal with the pain and what my body would allow me to do.  When we are in pain no one else can feel our pain.  Often it cannot be detected by how we appear.  But pain is real to the one who harbors it.  The pain I have suffered in my back this week has awakened my empathy and understanding of what others go through who daily suffer chronic pain.  So even in my limitations I have learned valuable lessons.  I have learned to be thankful in so many ways. 

 

Lord thank You for the lessons learned through this past week in regards to limitations and pain.

Thank You God that You have been with me through it all.

Thank You for the hope of recovery.

Thank You for the words of a dear friend who was willing to speak truthfully to me by telling me to “slow-up”!

Thank You for giving me more empathy and understanding for those suffering chronic pain.

Thank You God that I can walk.

Thank You God that I can bend.

Thank You God that I can sit and stand.

Thank You God that I can still lend a helping hand to others.

 

GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERYONE. 

I pray you are healthy and pain free.