How Do You Eat Your Elephant?

Imagine the feeling of weight being lifted from my shoulders when I realized what a load I carried as I was thinking about what I should be doing and not what I was doing.

I have been thinking about eating my elephant a lot lately. The creature is so huge and in fact is not willingly eaten on any day of the week. That elephant can pose a problem. The one thing we all know is that a normal person can not eat an elephant in one bite.

I don't know about you but when I was younger I did want to eat life all at once. I would try to do many things at a time, not doing anything every well.

So how about now? Well...most of the creature has been gnawed on at one time or another. Work, children, friends, homes, travel, books, hobbies and even spiritual stuff...they have all come to play a big part in my life at various time. The trouble always was that while I was gnawing away on one thing, I was thinking that I should also be working on something else.

Now, now...as I become older and wiser it has occurred to me that even now I am not thinking about what I am doing. I am always thinking about what I should be doing. If I am writing, I think about ironing. If I am ironing, I think about a book I need to finish. If is am reading a book, I am thinking about that other book, the one I need to read or have even started and the list goes on.

The sun was shining this morning so I drank my cup of coffee in our back yard. I wanted to save that moment in a blog post. Because ideas come and go rapidly, I needed to remember to write about how that felt. I was in the kitchen this afternoon getting ready for lunch and I was still thinking about it being the morning, telling myself to remember the idea! Why do I do that? I don't even taste my food because other things are on my mind. I think you would agree that simply jotting the idea down would have made a lot of sense.

Imagine the feeling of weight being lifted from my shoulders when I realized what a load I carried as I was thinking about what I should be doing and not what I was doing.

Later I thought about making my bed so I just did it. I didn't think about making the bed then sit down at the computer to write. I made the bed. The elephant was gone from the room and a feeling of joy filled my heart as I touched the blankets and tightened the sheet. Now I am writing now and nothing but the computer keys and my thoughts fill the room. WOW!

Do you do that? Are you trying to get so much done that you don't appreciate the joy you can get from doing those small things that are even mundane? Think about it and let me know.

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