Ease into the Pull

Every so often, do you feel pulled into something for the better? Or do you ever feel pulled into things for the worse--that make you feel slightly annoyed that you have to do it? Let's be honest with ourselves. We usually focus our attention on the obligations we are pulled into. Volunteer hours, service projects, chaufferring kids around, the gym. We obligatorily turn our overworked cranks to get it all done, but in turn, we end sounding like a cranky pest to everyone around us as we pontificate about all the other things we could/should be doing with our time. We are important. Our time is important. And gosh darnit, everyone should know it.

On the other hand...

If we stop and look at the things we are pulled into, we typically have a good time doing them. When we volunteer at school or engage in service projects, we get to spend quality time with our kids and socialize with others. Those {many} carpool moments to school and practices get us to share some pretty important conversations about Pokemon, Minecraft, and Fortnite (#boymom) that may go 96% over our heads but mean the world to our kids. When we go to the gym, we are building a healthier and happier version of ourselves. So if you stop to look at it, if we take away all the things we are "pulled into", would our lives be as fulfilling? We might have more time on our hands, but if given that time, what would we actually do with it?

If you're like me, your mind immediately goes toward a litany of other things you could be doing with that time. But would you really do them all? In a rare turn of events when I am given 3 or 4 leisure hours at home by myself, do I actually do those things I said I would? Usually not. Usually I'm so dumbfounded with the gift of time, that I don't know how to spend it, or what to do first, and ultimately my family comes home to find me in the exact same spot they left me, yet slightly more annoyed because I wasn't "productive" with my gift of time. It's like saying you want to watch a movie, only to spend an hour scrolling through options on Netflix, and ultimately falling asleep during one of the trailers because you can't process the infinite options. Or does that just happen to me? If we put forth less time complaining about the obligations we are pulled into, and more time existing IN those moments (being present), enjoying them and appreciating what happens during that time, would we come to find that those "obligations" are the things that actually do fill our bucket?

I'd venture to say, yes.

That's not to say some of us aren't overtugged and pulled into too many directions, but as we look at our lives, and pare down to the essentials, let's continue to give a little slack to the pull every now and again, and allow ourselves to ease into it, instead of tugging back counterproductively. Sometimes we expect the things we want or need in life to be packaged as beautifully as a new Apple product. Clean, neat, free from clutter, and with that little plastic film we get to pull off. But our lives aren't the product of a team of marketing and packaging experts. We are the marketing experts of our own lives. We choose to see the attributes or the bugs in our own systems.

We want more time to hang out with friends, but when we look at our lives, perhaps in this season of life, our friend time isn't the happy hours and lavish dinners of the past, but the kids' birthday parties and soccer games where we get to hang out and catch up. Where we can be ourselves -whoever that is in this moment- with others who are all just doing the same thing. Instead of trying to be everything, what if we just try to be?

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