Busy as a badge of Honor

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about rest and the incessant desire to always be doing something, to always be working, always busy.

Busyness is a badge of honor. Filled up calendars bursting at the seams, a sign of productivity and importance.

I had to pause one day when it seemed like the endless todo list for work and personal, seemed endless even after I had gotten up at 5am and started my workday at 6am.

It made me pause and think about my priorities - not having enough time to talk to my mom because I was stressed and so busy looking for another job.

I sat with the thought, “why are you so stressed about finding another job?” Why can’t you just rest for a little bit?

The answers that came back were obvious, “well if I quit my job, how will I take care of myself in a society where rent and bills are very real realities”.

Then the quiet voice inside me said, “do you not trust your spiritual path, the gifts that you’ve been given to take care of you”

I almost laughed back and thought “oh fooey”.

Gifts? Spiritual path? I just don’t want to be unhoused.

It made me think about the fear of being homeless in a society that does not even take care of the “least of them”.

In this American society, it seems, if you can’t produce something whether it be through your labor, physical or intellectual, then what good are you?

Some of us were forced to sit at the onset of Covid and I noticed that that was very uncomfortable for a lot of us. We wanted to get back our routine, to our “normal”.

I smile even as I type this because even among those in the social justice movement or who call themselves allies, couldn’t fathom that maybe just maybe this was a good time as any for things to change, to topple a system that is detrimental to our health.

The opposite was and is true.

People wanted to get back to how it was, which when I sit with those thoughts makes me think that maybe people aren’t really ready to do the hard work of reimagining a world where equity and liberation are possible.

Tap in in the comments: Have you worn busy as a badge of honor and how and if at all are you untangling yourself?