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My mother has a quirky sense of humor. I live a thousand miles away from the assistant living community where she lives, but most days we have a brief conversation. Of sorts.
She still cracks me up.
Even as her dementia takes her farther from the people who love her, and whom she loves, she still imparts motherly wisdom. (I used to write about this regularly. You can read more of what “Mama Says.”)
One day recently I bemoaned that I never seem to get enough done in the day and feel guilty for my shortcomings, even if I can point to a lot that I did get done.
Most of us know the feeling.
And that day, as we hung up, my mother said just what I wanted to hear: “Close the door on guilt. Slam it if necessary and turn the lock.”
Some days I really have to do that!
I am no slacker, and that’s perhaps my problem. Most days, as soon as I make a to-do list, I should scratch out half the items. During the last few weeks I’ve been trying to keep my expectations for myself somewhere in the stratosphere of, say, reasonable.
Our culture says time is money. Our culture measures everything, turns everything into numbers, assigns productivity values.
But I am not that. Neither are you.
We are people created and loved by God, who wants us not to get more done but to experience life more richly.
Let’s do that. And if it means closing the door on unwarranted guilt, then let’s do that.
