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Life In The Middle Today By Colleen Pulley

Eliminate the Clutter and Distractions From Your Life and Find Contentment

September is over, the kids are settling into their school routines, and the leaves are changing colors. People are already making plans to see Grandmother at Thanksgiving, and the in-laws during the Christmas Holidays. The kids are planning what they will dress up as, for Halloween. 2007 will soon be a thing of the past.

It is interesting when I think how quickly the time flies by. Once upon a time I was a young girl playing tag on the school grounds, a girl perched high in a tree on a warm Summer day, and a young adult laughing with my friends about how cute the boy in chemistry class was. Then I was a Mother working with my children on a craft, or homework. Soon I had kids in high school and then college. Eventually came marriages for my children and now there are grandchildren to enjoy.

I remember when I was young, my Mother would pull out the old family trunk, and we would go through family photos from about the 1900's to my Mother and Father’s marriage, and then our family. I remember how I’d laugh at the stiff expressions on the faces in the 1900 photos. My Mother would explain that the cameras then did not have the shutter speed of new cameras. The whish of the flash was followed by stillness, as the picture was captured on the frame. With time cameras got faster and you could see more facial expressions on photos. The laughing eyes of Uncles who died in World War I, and Aunt Jane who was a WAC in World War II. Young faces captured on their wedding day, babies lovingly held in Mother’s arms, who would not live to see their third birthdays. All those faces, and past generations who were laughing and loving their way through life are a testimony to me of how short the flicker in time we occupy.

The concerns and worries about jobs, and families, and home were just as real then as now. There are some differences between our time and those past times. First, their times required more physical stress, and the efforts of the entire family were needed to survive. This allowed the children to work along side the adults. The adults were their role models, and mentors.

I do believe time does go by faster now than it did then. We are always watching the clock. We fight the traffic jams, both Mom and Dad are working, and our children are involved in sport leagues, groups, their own activities, and after school jobs. We scurry through the days and look back disappointed that we didn’t get more done.

We seem to have more things that distract us. The television blares to our children to get this or that. Credit card and equity loan offers arrive in the mail daily inviting us to take advantage of their good deals so we can enjoy life more and decrease our debt payments per month. We are working longer hours, and seeing our families less and less. There are more things to do and inadvertently more ways to waste time. It is easy to let our lives be filled with clutter or little things that are not that important in the long run. Where is all this leading us? Is there actually a goal we are going to achieve? Do we feel happy with our lives, and who we are?

I am a firm believer in the need to disengage on a regular bases, and evaluate where you are at the present time. I do this more in the Fall than the beginning of the new year. When our children were young, we used this time to decide what they wanted to get done at school. We set family goals, such as always having breakfast together. We discussed what the family budget was, and how we were going to spend our money. We taught our children how to set goals, evaluate their progress, and revise strategies if necessary to accomplish what they wanted from life.

I suggest that if you want to feel less driven by life’s activities, you take the time to disengage and consider what you’re doing. If you have children, call a family council before the plans for the Holidays hit you. Put some thought into it, and write down some ideas. Engage your children at a young age, and help them establish some effective patterns for accomplishing their goals.

I challenge you to remove the clutter and distractions in your life. Over the obstacles that prohibit you from finding satisfaction in what is accomplished. Then you’ll have more contentment.

Time is going by and you need to get the most out of your short time here. Slow the clock down within yourself, and take better control of your life. Promise yourself that you will gain happiness, and enjoy the things that strengthen you and your family. Until next time... Colleen

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