Nothing Fun Ever Happens Anymore
It has been a marathon 15 months since March 2020. We’ve adapted, overcome, pivoted, found a new normal, found a next normal, and done whatever we could to find new healthy rhythms of life.
For those of you who don’t know, I am the person behind most of the clips you see on our Facebook and Instagram at See Hear Love. As I was choosing the clips for this week, I wondered how I could ever find a unifying theme for such different topics as Finding Fun and Making Right, Healthy Decisions. How could I find consistencies between such different voices as those of Annie F. Downs and Emily P. Freeman?
And then I heard each of them talk about their calendars. In Annie’s case, she says that anything that is important to you MUST be on your calendar. If you want to pray, or take sabbath, or have fun, you have to start by putting it on your calendar. And Emily talked about clarifying your priorities, by posing a question of the items on your calendar. What seems stressful about your week? What seems life giving and joyful?
As I was sending the clip off to be queued for next week, I realized that these were the messages I need the most right now. I have been in a fight to get control of my time for the past year. In a situation where my desk in my bedroom was where I was eating, watching movies and working. I have struggled to organize my time, not just to work effectively, but to do the life-giving things that make me happy to be alive. With the restrictions closing the gym I’ve made friends and new joyful habits at, the restaurants where I have food and good conversation with my closest friends, the workplace where I could engage with members of my team and my organization playfully, and even restricting me from visiting my friends to celebrate their birthdays, I found myself thinking “nothing fun ever happens anymore.”
Work became a drag – a routine of emails and deadlines, an overwhelming number of emails, slack messages, and text messages, and the occasional zoom meeting where we could all find something to laugh about.
I’ve had ups and downs. Mostly downs, and I’m still not sure what I have figured out, but what I do know is this: no matter how or when the world opens up, it’s time that I started making time for the things that restore my soul, and that those things need to show up on my calendar.