We hate getting a busy signal.  We talk about someone being a busy bee, and we often claim we are too busy.  Keeping up with the Joneses no longer feels like striving for the McMansion with a white picket fence, two kids, and a dog.  Whatever your family or housing situation, lately, I feel like keeping up is about being busier than your neighbor.  No one is forcing anyone to be busy, but there is this unspoken expectation that every minute must be filled or…or…or who knows, but it will probably be catastrophic.

Perhaps I’m the only one with the issue and I just revealed a personal complex, but I don’t think so.  I don’t want to be busy anymore.  When I was in my teens and twenties I loved having a full schedule that hopped from one activity to another.  Now I require rest, but I still fill my schedule to an unmanageable capacity.  I want a full life.  I just no longer want to be constantly watching the clock and rushing from activity to activity.

The other night I sat outside with a neighbor who I’ve met a few times and we chatted for hours, uninterrupted, unworried about where we […]