Quick fix/ Schnell

Hugs for Haiti!

The other side of procrastination is rapid response. There are some things that can't wait, or won't. There are times when I act in the moment, out of the moment, without doubt or hesitation.

These times are rare. I don't have the energy to be quick all the time. And anyway, I am a slow poke, dreaming and procrastinating, weighing things carefully, leaving a lot of stuff undone. But not in a bad way. Many things never need to be done. I don't have to do everything that comes into my head--or anyone else's.

(Don't put off for tomorrow what can be put off forever)

I love it when a thing gets done almost by itself because it simply demands action. Like an arrow flying straight to its target. Phoom. Bull's eye! Or a snakehead snapping out at it's prey.

A variation on the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to wait on things that don't have to be done, the strength to do what's necessary and the wisdom to know the difference.

Tun und Lassen ist eine grosse Kunst, die Kunst des Lebens sozusagen. Manche legen grossen Wert auf Äusserlichkeiten, sichtbares Tun. Ich habe eher den Hang für innere Arbeit. Die macht das Äusserliche oft überflüssig.

Und dennoch gibt es Äusserungen, die ich nicht vermissen möchte: der Ausdruck einer Seele in bildender Kunst, gelungene Arbeit jeglicher Natur, Gesang...Ich wünschte nur, mehr Menschen könnten die Dinge lassen, die ihnen selbst und anderen nur Leid zufügen. Na ja. Vielleicht kommt das irgendwann.

In Waiting/ Wartezeit

Procrastination has a bad name, but it's no thief. It's a lender of time. I procrastinate. A lot. But instead of calling it that, I call it waiting. What a difference a twist of terminology can make.

If you procrastinate, you're bad, you're lazy, you're self-destructive, sabotaging, etc. All the success gurus preach against it. But waiting is another story. Waiting makes you patient. And sometimes saves energy that might be wasted doing unnecessary things.

I don't need to do everything that occurs to me. Waiting gives others a chance to do them. Some things turn out to be a bad idea. Then I'm glad I waited. I can wait years for the right time, decades for the right thing. Yet, when the moment is right, things happen instantaneously with little effort on my part and hardly any duration of time.

Time to dream, time to rest, time to let things work themselves out; sometimes we have more time than we think, if only we would take it.
Hugs for Haiti!

In Deutschland wird die Man~ana-Mentalität belächelt. Die Deutschen seien nicht so, meint man. Schade. Denn manchmal ist es nützlich, warten zu können. Es passiert sehr viel, wenn man selber nichts unternimmt. Wir überschätzen manchmal die Wichtigkeit des Tuns. Gelegentlich ist das Lassen nicht nur wertvoller, sondern essentiell.

Also, tue, was du nicht lassen kannst--und geniesse den Rest.