Lately I've been thinking about my work/life balance (a phrase my sister reminded me of during my brother-in-law's recent job searching adventures). My job takes a lot of my time, and I can get easily overwhelmed and stressed out at all that I need to get done, and the short time-frames I'm up against. I wonder if work/life balance is something that people think mainly applies to people who have spouses and children, but not so much for single people? Are people without spouses or kids expected (even if it's an unconscious expectation) to put in the super long hours and weekend work? Just because I don't have a family that needs my time, doesn't mean I want to spend every waking moment working. I think my challenge is that I think the organization I work for could be - and should be - doing more, and therefore I feel it's on me to be doing the "doing". (I do have to say that my boss always been great in giving me the independence to prioritize things as I see fit, which is great).
So this leads to my second thoughts. Because my work weeks are pretty jammed-packed, especially this summer it seems, I've made it a priority to keep Sundays truly as a day of rest. That means no "work-work", and if at all possible, no "house-work" (cleaning, grocery shopping, paying bills, etc). I'm really good at the no "work-work" rule, and only break it on a rare occasion and in extreme need. The no "house-work" rule is easier to break, but I also try really hard to keep that one too. Not that I spend Sundays like a monk in prayer and contemplation all day (although I think sometimes I need more of that), but it's just so nice to have a day where I can just take a deep breath and rest. That's why Sundays are my favorite day.
2 comments:
Hi Amanda!
Thanks for your thoughts on this, I hear you!
I recently watched the movie/documentary "The Lost Boys" of Sudan which had me thinking about this very subject. It chronicles a group of orphaned young men who are excited to come to the US to get education and earn lots of money. What happens when they get here is pretty sad to me. It juxtaposed Sudanese refugee and typical US life pretty well, and made me question typical US priorities. (job/money/nice place to live, even education)
That's a very cool idea.
BTW a neat classic book that addresses some of might be of your interest called Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberg. It's not a specifically Christian book but it has a lot of wisdom that I think overlaps with concepts of faith. amazon.com link
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