What Would Grandma Try To Get Done?
“My grandmother came from a farm background. She was born in the 1880’s when horse and buggy was the only method of transportation. Shopping was a major undertaking that took the whole day. She was forced to plan ahead because she just didn’t have the time to pick up a few things for supper.” This is a quote from Dennis’ comment to A Letter To My Grandma. It ties in well with my last post What Would Grandma Use To Get Around?
We live in an extraordinarily mobile society. Although I currently stay home full-time with my kids, I rarely ever stay home. I feel like I am in a perpetual state of motion. My ability to be mobile impacts what I try to accomplish in a given day. I live in a mindset of always trying to get the next thing done. Rushing around from one thing to another creates an underlying feeling of discontentment in my life. I never allow myself to settle emotionally or physically. I consume my moments just like I consume my stuff. Nothing satisfies when I live this way.
What Would Grandma Try To Get Done? I envy Grandma because she seemed to know the limits of her life. She knew what each day required of her. Her life had boundaries and structure. Grandma’s week had a rhythm. Dennis’ comment went on to describe his Grandma’s weekly rhy
thm as follows:
Monday: wash
Tuesday: iron
Wednesday: gardening
Thursday: sewing
Friday: baking
Saturday: shopping
Sunday: church
What would it feel like to have a daily, weekly, monthly rhythm? What if I just focused on doing the basics instead of running around like a chicken with my head cut off? Grandma knew exactly what that looked like and it wasn’t pretty! What would I be giving up? What would I gain?
Learning to live like my Grandma is not just about sustainably and simplicity. It is about having a rhythm to my days - not a longer to do list. My frantic pace makes me feel disconnected from the details of my own life. I am no good for myself and no good for others when I live this way. I want to know what I am doing and why I am doing it.
What Would Grandma Try To Get Done? Did your Grandma have a rhythm? Did it make her life more simple or more complicated? I can get the basics done a lot more quickly than Grandma. I should have time left over, but I cram a lot of unecessary activities into my day. What if I had a rhythm that just covered the basics? I wonder if it would open up space for the things I truly enjoy.
Tim Ferris, author of The Four Hour Workweek talks about the low-information diet. http://www.changethis.com/34.04.LowInfo
The basic idea is that there is more going on in the world than we can possibly know about. If you “solve” this by figuring out how to know more, you burn out. He proposes intentionally cutting out sources of information from your day. If you don’t know about it, you can’t miss it.
Your post sounds exactly the same. There’s just too much to do. As long as we’re willing to spend all day in the car, we convince ourselves we’re able to do it all. We can’t.
I know there will always be exceptions. But it seems to me if you plan on doing the laundry on Monday, and it’s something that usually takes you all day, you can’t accept last minute invitations. When is the last time you told a friend, “Nope, sorry, I’m busy today”? And what you were busy with was chores?
April, I love the sentences: My frantic pace makes me feel disconnected from the details of my own life. I am no good for myself and no good for others when I live this way. I want to know what I am doing and why I am doing it.
This is so important to all our mental and physical health issues.
Thank you for the reminder of that this morning..
Karen