Enjoy the Now

For years I’ve engaged in the pastime of dividing the world into two camps; e.g., those who like cats and those who don’t, or those who read the Sunday comics and those who don’t. There’s another one that I don’t very often mention because it feels like I’m exposing a great weakness, but I think that it’s time I take that risk. Those who love me don’t seem to care, and they’re the only ones I really worry about anyway. There are those who are basically lazy and those who are at the Type A end of the scale. I’m the former. You’ll notice I always put the category I’m in at the beginning.

Let me explain what I mean by ‘lazy’. I am quite content with doing nothing meaningful. I can look at my untidy house for days (sometimes longer) before feeling any motivation to do something about it. When I don’t like what I see, I go about cleaning it up. Maybe not all of it, just what bothers me. When my kids were still at home, they always knew when someone was coming over; Mom was cleaning house.

I can sit endlessly playing Spider Solitaire, which will remain a challenge and an addiction until I can win 50% of the time. Then I’ll stop, but it will probably be succeeded by yet another challenging game. I started years ago with a game that caused “golfer’s elbow” (it wasn’t even “Golf”), and yet continued to play. Then I started to play “FreeCell”, a solitaire that engaged me until I was introduced to Spider. I tell myself I’m using my brain, because I do have to think ahead about the consequences of a particular move, I have to look at patterns, and see possibilities that aren’t immediately obvious. Surely that skill must have some place in the real world, right?

OK, so I’m addicted to a computer solitaire game. I also can be found doing crosswords (only the “Sunday” type will do) or the most devilish level of Sudoku, and we all know they’re good for the brain. Meanwhile, the dishwasher needs to be emptied, floors swept. I do multitask, though. While I’m Spidering, crosswording or Sudokuing, I’m also listening to NPR, soaking up news and commentary (unless I’m too rapt about the game and manage to tune out another oil spill or drill).

I have to admit I chide myself at times, thinking of all the things I could be doing instead of warming my desk chair for Sheba (she’ll jump up as soon as possible after I relinquish the chair). I could go drive along or sit by the ‘big water’, my favorite place for meditation and contemplation. I could be watching a movie; I usually have a couple from Netflix I haven’t watched. I could be reading. I could be knitting. Actually, I want to get back to knitting; it’s relaxing, productive, and there’s something to show for the time I’ve spent.

I know people who are not happy unless they’re doing something. Always on the go, they schedule their lives with barely enough time to change clothes between commitments, or so it seems to me. Silicon Valley seems to me to be full of Type A people, and it’s no doubt why this valley became rich and a technological mecca. I get very tired, as in sleepy, when I think of these 80-hour-a-week types. Maybe they love their jobs, and maybe they’re making money hand over fist, but I can’t help but think they’re missing something. Do they have time to think about life, God, politics, love? Do they take time to stroke the cat, walk the dog, wonder about what it’s like to be a solo goldfish in a little bowl? Do they take the time to read to their son and daughter before bed (are they even home then?) or take them to the park where they and the dog can run free? Do they listen to what’s happening around them?

As soon as I start saying “I should be doing….”, I usually remember to stop myself and say, “Mary, you’re doing what you need or want to do. If you wanted to be [fill in the blank], you’d either be doing it or looking for the way to do it soon. Enjoy the now.”

That’s really what it’s about. Enjoy the now. We’re stuck in the now, so deal with it. The laundry will get done, the floor will get swept, but….oh, excuse me please, Riley needs to be loved for a bit.

More to come…