In the Absence of Deadlines

Noticed yesterday that our first day lily has announced her presence, right on time. By that I mean, there is no set time for this. Only the noting of it and gladness of it. And perhaps taking a picture. But it's a thing every season. 

 The first one. 

 Here she is.

I can't speak much about other kinds of 'vacations', ones that involve a beach, or camping, or touring other cities. And the truth is that I'm really not talking about a vacation right now, because both Ken and I still consider ourselves working.

But a significant feature of being here at the cottage right now, vacation or not, is that there is truly little to no sense of urgency. You wake up and there's nowhere to go, nowhere you have to be at any specific time.

Maybe this is more descriptive of the kind of work I'm doing here more than Ken. He does have business deadlines, and if he's 'working a call' he's really working that call and it takes priority over most anything else.

But for me? Having a time where, even though I'm working, I can wake up and have no urgent time line on any of it, that's breathe-deep beautiful.

Author Steven Covey (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) first introduced me to categories of work, placed in 'quadrants'. Without going into too much detail here, I'd say that what I'm enjoying here is a lovely long stretch of days where I can work in Quadrant 2 - Work that is important but not urgent.

I'm noticing this today because, well, I did have somewhere to be at a certain time. It was my honour to lead the service at Cognashene Community Church, literally just down the channel from our place. This is opening Sunday for the season, and the happy hellos and the time together to corporately reorient ourselves to Creator God after a long winter could not happen in a more suitable place, on the rocks, under the trees and the wide open sky.

We had to get up and get ready and be there. Which, honestly, was just fine and well worth it. But in conversation with another worshipper this morning, they were commenting on how they might have a wait for that 'cottage feeling' for a while yet because....they were working under a few deadlines back in the city.

I feel ya' brother. Which brings me back to the day lily, and the reflections of Scottish biologist and evangelist (love that combo) from the latter part of the 1800s, Henry Drummond.

"The lilies grow, Christ says, of themselves; they toil not, neither do they spin. They grow, that is, automatically, spontaneously, without trying, without fretting, without thinking."

It is of course unrealistic, and to my mind undesirable, to live perpetually in a state where nothing is ever remotely urgent. Deadlines ,and goals, and meet ups, and coordination of human endeavours are all part of what makes for a life lived on purpose.

But it is good, when possible, to spend a bit of time in the absence of deadlines. If nothing else, to remind me of how much is really going on without me pressing for it. Without trying, without fretting, without thinking.

And if God exists outside of time, I'm kinda' thinking He doesn't get all stressed about the when.
He's more about the why....
and the who.

May this long summer Sunday afternoon,
which likely includes having tomorrow off,
bring a sweet sense of release
from whatever pressures you carry.