How To Cultivate a Healthy Relationship with Time When You’re Hardwired for Hurry

“Do you always read to your kids like that?” she queried.

My friend was referring to my rendition of a Dr. Seuss classic delivered at tongue-twister speed from a rocking chair in the church nursery:

“Would you like them in a house?
Would you like them with a mouse?
Would you eat them in a box?
Would you eat them with a fox?” (Green Eggs and Ham)

“Just Dr. Seuss,” I replied. “It’s funnier if you read it fast.”

She grinned and raised an eyebrow. “You do everything fast.” She was right, and I think she truly meant it as a compliment, but she spoke more truth than she knew. I have always lived hard-wired for hurry.

Efficiency, productivity, and astute time management can be assets if the most important goal is checkmarks on a long to-do list. But I am a woman surrounded by people, big and small, who need the assurance that they matter. Join me over at the Redbud Post to read about my ongoing struggle with time, and the offering up of my minutes as a gift to the people I love. Simply CLICK HERE to read the rest of the article and add your thoughts to the conversation on the topic of time.

When my four small sons grew tall and angular and independent, I began to understand that time is a non-renewable resource, but it is also a gift. #mothering

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And Now a Book About a Doctor’s Unconventional Use of Time…

Dr. James O’Connell has invested three decades in a concerted effort to “tend the sick, soothe the suffering, [and] pity the afflicted,” riding in the outreach van by night and building the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program by day. His services range from distributing food, blankets, socks, and underwear all the way to admitting patients to Mass General’s emergency room.

Tracy Kidder has a gift for humanizing large topics, and he employs it in his portrayal of Dr. O’Connell and his staff as he followed them around for five years, scribbling in his notebook as they made nighttime rounds in the city. Deadly opiates, harsh weather, insufficient nutrition, alcohol addiction, and an abundance of psychiatric maladies are perpetual opponents to medical care and basic healthful practices. For example, where does a homeless person store her insulin?

Hope wars against despair in the practice of “disaster medicine” where measurable success is infrequent. The book addresses the importance of housing and provides abundant evidence that housing alone is an insufficient factor in rehabilitating a vulnerable population.

Even tapping into the wisdom gained over three decades, Rough Sleepers is a message of awareness more than remedy. O’Connell’s assessment reveals a studied ambivalence: “I like to think of this problem of homelessness as a prism held up to society, and what we see refracted are the weaknesses in our health care system, our public health system, our housing system, but especially in our welfare system, our educational system, and our legal system–and our corrections system.”

Sadly, chief among these is the fatal weakness of the human heart that afflicts us all, even if we are housed and outwardly stable.

Readers sensitive to rough language should definitely give this book a pass.

Holding you in the Light,

Author Tracy Kidder has a gift for humanizing large topics, and he employs it in his portrayal of Boston’s homeless population and the work of the @BHCHP. #RoughSleepers #bookreview

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How Will You Come Close to God in the Days Leading up to Easter? (Here’s a FREE Resource to Help…)

February 22 was Ash Wednesday, the day on the church calendar that ushers us into Lent and our pondering of Christ’s great work on the cross. Every year, I appreciate this work of the heart that prepares me for a true celebration of resurrection on Easter Sunday.

As a gift to my newsletter subscribers, I’ve created a collection of 20 devotional readings called Come Close to the Story. If you’re already a subscriber, just sit tight and it will land in your email inbox on February 16, the Third Thursday of the month.

If you’re not already a subscriber, this Lenten season I invite you to join me for a daily pause—most readings should take five minutes or less—to come close to the story. In your busy life, remember that Easter is on its way. Affirm your belief in resurrection power, and then admit that without a death, there would be no resurrection.

Every month I send a newsletter with biblical encouragement straight to my subscribers’ email inboxes. Frequently, I share free resources, and the newsletter is where everything lands first. I’m committed to the truth that women can become confident followers of God and students of his Word, and it’s my goal to help you along that path.

To add this free resource to your pursuit of biblical literacy and receive access to Come Close to the Story in time for your Lenten observance, simply enter your email and then click on the button below…

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees. If you should decide to purchase any of the books or products I’ve shared, simply click on the image, and you’ll be taken directly to the seller. If you decide to buy, I’ll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.