Well, when I say busy...I mean busy going to the library, hanging out with my friends, reading books with terrible cliffhanger endings, writing, school, planning parties and get-togethers, going to church and youth group outings.
So you see, I have been very busy.
But I love being busy. There is just something about always having something to do that just appeals to me.
For some people, being busy stresses them out. They prefer to have a nice, quiet, easy go of things where things are the same everyday, where you can keep your house clean and maintain that, where you can sleep until 9 in the morning and then have a lovely, leisurely day.
That was how my grandmother did things. I loved her a lot and was very sad when she died. I always loved going to her house and spending a few days, doing things slowly and orderly and the same every time.
There is certainly nothing wrong with that.
That's how things used to be in my house, before my grandmother got sick. Dad would go to work everyday at about the same time, get home about the same time, meals about the same time, same chores, same school, same things, all the time.
And I loved that too.
But then my grandmother got sick and came to live with us. And then my cousins and aunt came to stay with us. And my mom was busy taking my grandma to her doctors and my aunt went with them and they would go shopping and stuff and be gone most of the day.
Leaving me, at 13 to watch my 10 year old sister and my 8 and 5 year old cousins.
They drove me crazy, and sometimes I just wanted to run away, because sometimes I got tired of the noise and the crowded house and all the people needing me all the time.
But then one day I realized that that would all end one day. The people would leave our house. They would leave us. They wouldn't need me so much anymore.
And I didn't like the idea.
I love chaos, not in the way that there are explosions going on and there is shrapnel flying through my roof. Not the kind where there are 20 kids in a room and only one person supervising (been there, done that). Not the kind where everyone is fighting and shouting.
But an orderly chaos. Where there are lots of people laughing and having fun. Where there are little people who need you to help them with something. Orderly chaos is the kind of chaos you get in a big family, who are held together not because of a super strict schedule or some kind of harsh order, but are held together because they all love each other, they all depend on each other. They live in a society where they do not stand alone, but are busy helping each other, busy needing each other, busy loving each other.
That is the kind of busy that I love.
The busy that means you are doing what God intended us to do.
We are humans, we are beings who need relationships with each other. We *need* to help each other. It's in our nature. Otherwise, we get lonely.
Some of the things that have had me busy is having people over to watch Doctor Who or Walking Dead. It's not the shows that I really care about that much. It's the people who come to watch them with me.
When I go to the library, one of my favorite parts is walking there with my sister. Even though it has been dreadfully cold on those walks and our fingers and faces are frozen by the time we get there, I love those walks, because I love talking with her (we talk in the library too, but not as much, we tend to get a little loud sometimes).
(We aren't at the library in this pic BTW)
Think about reading a really good book, where at the end, you are crying because it's over. You aren't crying because they had a happy ending, or because you have finally solved the mystery, you are crying because that is the end of the *characters* in the book. You have grown to love the *people* in the book. Why? Because we need that, we love to love people.
Why? Because God loves to love people, and we are created in His image, we are like Him in that way.
I have always wanted to go to a city where there are tons of people. It's beautiful to me, seeing all those people living and working together. While in big cities like New York or London, everybody doesn't know each other like they do in Mayberry, but there is still love among the people there.
Yes, there are crimes, because not everybody loves each other like we should, sometimes people love the money more than the people getting mugged. But that is the nature of man, we sin, we mess up, but in the end, there always ends up being someone we love.
So why do I love being busy? Because I love the people I am busy with. I love seeing them, helping them, watching tv with them, reading with them, walking with them, learning about the Lord with them.
Next time you are stressed out because you have a dinner party coming up, or you have a meeting to attend, or a class to teach, or even if it's just because there is so much laundry and you are so tired, remember, don't do things because they need to get done or because you feel like you have to. Don't worry about that.
Do it because you love the people you are doing it for.
It turns busy times into happy times.
Cheers!
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