The First Parish in Bedford Unitarian Universalist

75 The Great Road, Bedford, Massachusetts 01730 On the Common

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Taking Back Your Time

John asked me to add a few words to his sermon today because my wife
Deb and I have arranged our lives in a way that gives us a lot of
time: time to think, time to talk to each other, time to give to our
friends and to the community.

Over the last few days, I've been wondering whether or not I have
anything of general interest to say, because our lives are very
idiosyncratic. We don't have children, we don't have a house, we
aren't as successful professionally as we might have been. Some of the
things we have given up are precisely the things that make other
people's lives worthwhile. So if there is a lesson to be learned from
our example, it can't be as simple as just copying what we do.

After thinking it over, I've come up with general three ideas I'd like
to pass on.

First, the way you gain time is by doing less. That should be obvious,
but the bookstores and talk shows are full of people telling you that
if you were just more efficient you could do more and more and more
and still have time. I think those people have a special place in Hell
right next to the folks who claim that you can lose weight without
dieting or exercising. It doesn't work that way.

Second, learn how to bless the day. If you're going to be happy doing
less, you need to be able to get to the end of the day, know that you
could have done more, and be satisfied anyway. Look at Genesis. At the
end of the day, God doesn't stress over all the stuff that isn't
created yet. Each day, he looks at the unfinished world and says
"That's good." And it is, because he says so. You are the ultimate
judge of your life. If you can get to the end of the day and say it's
good, then it's good.

Finally, if you're going to have the authority to make that kind of
judgment stick, you need to know who you are. I believe that for each
person, there is a very short list of things that you really need to
be doing with your life. No one else can tell you what those things
are, but if you know them, then you can skip everything else. You
don't need to do all the things that make other people's lives
worthwhile - just the things that make /your/ life worthwhile.

So: Do less. Bless the day. Figure out who you are. Easy to say, hard
to do. But if you can pull it off, I think you'll be amazed how much
time opens up.

Doug Muder
26 October 2003