Ever Growing Ever Changing

We live on a hamster wheel. The scenery never changes; the days blur together; and fulfilling activities get tossed aside like yesterday’s newspaper. Sunrise paints the sky with vibrant hues, but you’re hitting the snooze button. The kids launch into a breakfast rebellion, and the morning descends into a whirlwind of backpacks, permission slips, and lukewarm coffee. Work swallows the next eight hours, a vortex of emails and deadlines. Then that is followed by dinner duty, homework battles, and a desperate dash to catch the 10 o’clock news before collapsing into bed. Weekends offer a temporary reprieve, but even those get swallowed by chores and errands. Once in a while, you break the rut and head to the beach, a party, the movies, etc., but it feels fleeting, a tiny oasis in a vast desert of predictability.  Certainly, this is not all there is to life! Certainly, we weren’t created to be mindless machines, following a pre-programmed routine until the plug gets pulled.  

For me, the answer is that there is certainly more. Even so, lately, I have become victim to the daily grind and the hamster wheel of life. So, what stops us from seeking out a more fulfilling life? 

There is probably an endless list of responses to this question. I offer a few possibilities: 

• The difficulty of balancing work and family;  
• What other people think; 
• What everybody else is doing or not doing;  
• Time consumed on social media that could be dedicated to other things;  
• Not being clear on what activities resonate the most with us;  
• Thinking that finding time for the things we love to do is overindulgent, especially as mothers; and 
• Thinking life is guaranteed and we’ll get around to really living…eventually.  

So, what’s the solution to the tedium and drudgery of the routine?  I think a large part of that is intentional living. Living intentionally means, among other things, making time for the things that you truly enjoy, that help you grow spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually, or that help you generally become a better version of yourself. It’s carving out space for the activities that nourish your soul and make you a better version of yourself. This might include physical self-care, travelling and exploring the world, or spending more time with God.  

The Path Forward: Charting Your Course to a More Fulfilling Life 

The journey to intentional living starts with self-awareness. We’re so busy doing that we forget to simply be.  In fact, it has become almost uncomfortable to sit and let our minds just wander without the distraction of TV, YouTube, or something in the background. Schedule some serious “me time”. Disconnect, unplug, and reconnect with yourself. Ask yourself the tough questions. What matters most to you? What lights you up from the inside out? What kinds of experiences resonate with your soul? What is your divine purpose, as far as you can surmise? 

Don’t just let these answers languish in the dusty corners of your mind. Write them down next! Create a list of activities that will bring more joy and purpose into your life. Don’t forget to include self-care essentials, for example, reading your Bible more, massages, time with friends, or quiet moments in nature. 

Now comes perhaps the key part: integrating these activities into your reality. Treat them like important appointments. Block out time in your calendar for reading; schedule phone calls with friends; or sign up for the pottery or dance class you’ve been eyeing.