A Post a Day in May 2019 #30: Full-on focus

I have pledged to write a new post for this blog every day in May. 

Many summers ago, our friend Laurie was never in town. She seemed to be on a perpetual canoe trip — or returning from one or packing up for another. Her whole summer appeared to have been spent on the water. When I asked her about it, she said, indeed, she had been on many canoe trips, and loved every minute. Mind you, she said, nothing else got done. She had made the decision to spend the summer on the water and that’s what she did. The house suffered, the garden was neglected, the mail was ignored, and Laurie had the summer she wanted. 

Photo by Laura Lefurgey-Smith on Unsplash

I often think of Laurie and her approach to that one summer, and I try to bring a bit of that single-minded focus into my life. For me, the challenge is two-fold: managing the mountain of priorities, obligations and chores that litter the everyday, and not letting the full-time job I have overshadow all else. Actually it’s a three-fold challenge, and the third fold is almost the most challenging: figuring out what I actually and really want to spend my time and energy on. 

During this month of May, my full-on focus has been the writing of a daily post for my blog and, as I near the end, I can see that I’ve achieved it by doing what Laurie did: ignoring all manner of other things that tend to pull at my energy and attention. My laptop on the dining room table has been the headquarters for my mission, a focal point around which I have centred my time and energy. I have continued to go to work and attend to domestic obligations, even gotten to the cottage on weekends, but the daily posts have been my priority — not only in physical writing practice but in what I have given space to in my mind: All things have been considered in relation to the writing of posts.

I’m happy about this and I’m already wondering what my full-on focus might be in June, but before I divert attention to that immediate future, I want to pause for a moment (in among my self-congratulations on having arrived, almost, at the end of this Post a Day in May lark) to say this: The conundrum at the centre of the ever-present mix in our lives of could, should and might lies the question of want. 

How easy, or not, is it for any of us to say, “this is what I want, really want”? I’m not talking about tofu for supper; I’m talking about what to do with my spare time, with my talent and desire, with my life. Options abound, yet I fear that many of us are so hamstrung by obligation and habit that even playing with the idea of want is difficult. 

And “playing with” is key, here, I believe, either on your own or with a friend. Make some time to play with the crazy notion that some of your time could be used to do what you actually want to be doing. It’s a good first step towards experiencing the satisfaction of your own version of Laurie’s perpetual canoe trip that summer all those years ago.  

Thanks for reading. 

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