Frenetic, Frazzled and Frenzied (Audio)
A conversation a few nights ago spoke of the Christmas shopping season. The weariness one feels by the time one has spent August to mid-December with Christmas decorations, songs, parties, and gifting. It feels like the season is more than a night, it’s nearly 6 months long!
Imagine all the buyers for all the products…they begin in January preparing for the clearance sale in December!
Imagine all the producers planning upwards of 2 years in advance for the raw materials they will need.
Imagine all the miners, manufacturers, ranchers, farmers, planters, and harvesters – all looking 2-3 years in the future for their production.
This is why the shopping season lasts so long! It takes a long while to get the product to market. Sellers want to take advantage of every minute available. From Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Free Shipping! Everyone from shippers to retailers try to get you into the slide of fast pace decisions. Do it now. Now. NOW!
Now. Take a long walk through a resale and recycle shop…most of what we focus on will end-up here, or in the refuse pile. Someday.
Why do we stress so much? We want everything to be perfect and we know that the season will not produce a perfect experience.
We stress over who to buy what, and when does it make sense for them to have that. Click To TweetThis is a perfect time to find that niche of daily time to have nothing on the plate of busyness and enjoy some quiet time. Peace. Relaxation. In the midst of the frenetic, frazzled and frantic pace. Slow down. Take control of the busyness. Pace yourself. Set realistic deadlines. Keep your peace!
I remember my mom having this poem in some form of print… way back in those good ol’ days before the internet!
Slow Me Down Lord
By: Orin Crain, 1957
Slow me down Lord
Ease the pounding of my heart
by the quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace
with a vision of the eternal march of time.
Give me amid the confusion of the day,
the calmness of the eternal hills.
Break the tension of my nerves and muscles
with the soothing music of the singing streams
that live in my memory.
Help me to know the magical restoring power of sleep.
Teach me the art of taking MINUTE vacations,
Of slowing down to look at a flower,
to chat with a friend,
to pat a dog,
to read a few lines of a good book.
Slow me down Lord
and inspire me to send my roots
deep into the soil of life’s enduring values
that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.
Praying for you to have a blessed busy time of the year! Rattle your cage down to a slower pace…