It’ll be there when we get back.

I have a wonderful spouse who views weekends as time we should use to “catch-up” on our projects.  For years, I have embraced this as a standing order for committing these two most important days for work.  With a full-time job and a very busy part time job, it can be far too easy to forget to take time to recharge my physical and emotional batteries.

Before I “grew up” and burdened my life with too much responsibility, I would bicycle tour the backroads, sail, canoe or kayak on my weekends.  Now, I am so busy that I seldom get to enjoy those things.  In fact, I recently decided to sell some of my recreational equipment since I wasn’t using them.  When I told my wife and son that I was selling my kayaks, they both went into shock.  “You love to kayak” they both yelled at me. “Yes, but I don’t have time to use them, and they are too expensive to just have around not being used”. Don’t sell them, they both said in unison.

Then it hit me.  I had been led astray from the things that gave me joy and which I needed for my own sanity.  Those have been replaced with a new mistress of projects that never ended.  Most of which had become a burden I had wrought upon myself.  My own necessity for keeping busy had taken me away from the things that brought me health and wellness and sanity.  My good friend once said of me, “You need to learn the word – no”. He is so right.  I had said yes to a life of projects that grew larger each month.

This year, I purposely kept my calendar open so I could enjoy some of the pursuits I love.  Instead of traveling to entertain someone else while they are recreating, I am traveling for my own purpose, to recreate and enjoy some things I haven’t in years.  My spouse is not pleased when she informs me that x, y and z need to get done and my response is “it will be there when we get back”.  It can sound like I am procrastinating by saying what I am saying, but the reality is, I am not procrastinating, I am extending my life.  Those projects will be there when I return, and I can chip away at them all week long.  But I will never get back the days I neglected to see a friend, or paddle a wild river, or watch a waterfall; or sit by a campfire.

I chose many years ago to live in the country because I wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  Instead, I created a new country style hustle and bustle.  One where the lawn is much larger; the woods are in constant need of care; the vines in need of pruning.  I replaced one hectic lifestyle with  another. The reality is, work is never ending, but life is.

We have a finite time on this planet and the older you get, the more you realize how short our time is.  Don’t burden yourself with projects, enrich yourself with memories. Don’t worry, that project will still be there when you get back.