Welcome to this week’s edition of the Five Minute Friday link-up!
Learn more about the link-up and how it works here, and join the email list here.
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: SCHEDULE
Setting my timer for five minutes, and . . . GO.
I work from home, which I love and am so grateful for . . . but that often means I fail to set good boundaries for myself and sometimes (ahem, often) am still on my laptop doing “one more thing” for work well past eight o’clock at night.
The reality is, I fell behind when I was recovering from surgery in November and December, and the work just keeps piling up. The incoming tasks don’t slow down enough for me to catch up.
And while I will always say I’d rather have too much work than not enough, at times it can feel a bit much. Let’s just say I’ve started having work dreams for the first time in my life.
This past week was my husband’s birthday, and even though we’re both busy, I decided to surprise him with a one-night getaway. It felt a bit scandalous to set my “out of office” in the middle of the week, but it was so worth it.
As I carried our bag to the room, I saw a sign on the wall at the Bed and Breakfast where we were staying that read:
“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
It was the perfect reminder and confirmation that a night away was the right choice.
It sounds crazy, but sometimes we get so busy with work and other tasks and chores that we have to schedule time to rest and be refreshed.
STOP.
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Join the link-up with your own five-minute freewrite on the prompt, SCHEDULE, below, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment:
Death’s scheduled time for stop for me,
picked out with sweet love and care,
but at that moment he will see
that I choose not to be there.
He will doubtless shake his head,
“Don’t this drongo need a rest?”
but I’ll be at the beach instead
to give the waves my very best,
on my longboard, hanging ten
through the Green Room to the sun,
and that moment will be when
death itself will come undone,
’cause when Christ’s new life was a-birthing,
first thing He did was to go surfing.
What a great sign. I think I need to print it out as a reminder for myself.
It is a sad truth that we have to schedule rest.
very true, balance is very needful.
Schedules
Day by day and time by time
every moment in twenty-four hours defined by a single slash at the end of the day in the calendar on the wall
Did it matter, didn’t it?
Controlled by hourly lists
Do this by eight o clock
do this by nine
then what?
What arbitrary force pushes this schedule, this unending list of hourly commitments
At the end, when the last day draws and time is gone, will it matter
won’t it?
How many of these schedules stopped me from doing what truly mattered
How many times did I do what I had to do instead of what I should?
I’m tired of schedules. I create them. I hold myself to them but for what purpose? So I can wake up again and start all over this race against time to get done what I’ve determined I should
No.
What if that still small voice says I have something better – something more important – something good
Am I to say no, God. I have a schedule to keep. If I do that then I’ll fail?
How much of this life is lost in the busy entrapment of schedules
Will I be brave enough to say no more?
To say to God, okay, I’m yours
Do with me as you will
In the end when that last day is marked off and the pen set down. When there are no more tomorrows no more schedules no more time. What will I regret – surely not missing one more schedule.
No. What I will regret the times when I was trapped in my schedule when I missed the call to more when I failed to hear His call.