The Day-Long Bucket List

"Of the present time, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them."
 - C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters

A few years ago, probably inspired by the movie, everyone started talking about their "Bucket List." It's a great idea to think big in your life - to think about the places you want to go and the larger experiences you want to have. 

But I was thinking this week, how much emphasis I tend to put on the future and on the past, and how little my heart and mind are firmly rooted in the present.  That's when I came up with the Day-Long Bucket List. 

It's not a to-do list.  The idea is to make a list on a piece of paper, of all the things you want as a part of that day.  The important things. 

I've tried this idea out for the past three days, because I was finding that my time was being sucked up by the internet.  Needless online searches, Netflix watching, facebook, and email checking.  At the end of the day, I didn't look back thankful for the way I spent that time, but more regretted the fact that I hadn't used it wisely in truly good, beautiful, enjoyable, lovely things.  These are the kinds of things I want on my Day-Long Bucket list:

-making time to friends  - calls, letters, emails
-volunteer work or time spent helping others
-creative time - time devoted toward the arts and literature
-prayer time
-study time
-time developing in my career
-exercise
-time for daily chores and work (of course)
-pure fun recreation time

Thinking big is essential.  Having a vision for life that encompasses bungee jumping, skydiving, and trips to Paris is important.  But we will never reach those larger milestones if our day-to-day lives lack vision too. 

We can be sucked into mediocrity when we go into the day without a vision.  It doesn't have to be a mind-boggling to-do list, but maybe just a reminder of what is truly important. 

The Power of Percolation

 

"Give, and it will be given to you. 

                                A good measure,

                                           pressed down,

                                                shaken together and running over,

                                                                           will be poured into your lap." Luke 6:38

 

In 2010, new songs were coming out my ears (and pen), songs that I was passionate about - songs I really enjoyed singing and playing. 

 

When the plentiful period of time had been going on for quite awhile, I started to think it was normal and would last forever.  And then, all of a sudden, the well dried up.  There was nothing to write about.  With the greatest of efforts, I could only seem to pull up silly clichés and rhymes, overdone melodic patterns and harmonic sequences.  Even though I was writing, I wanted to throw my ideas back in the pond before anyone would hear them. 

 

It has been three years now, and for a long time I have wondered when another song will come my way, the way the good ones do. 

 

I watched enviously as my friend Andrea came to band practice every week with new song ideas.  I wanted to make this happen for me, too.  But it just wouldn't.

 

This is where we started talking about the idea of "percolation," those times where you have nothing outward to show.  Life is going by all around you, and you turn your experiences over and over in your mind. 

 

 

It is like panning for gold - that painstaking process of sifting out, sifting out, until all the common dust and water is expelled and only the precious stone remains.

 

 

It is like spinning wool into yarn, as you turn and turn the rough material until it becomes more supple and useable.

 

 

It is like harvesting wheat, and slowly separating the single golden kernel from the chaff and the straw and the husks. 

 

 

Percolation is often frustrating because - what do you have to show for all that time, all that time of things being shaken down and pressed together?  All those emotions and observations and experiences and memories getting shuffled around and mixed up until finally the perfect choice phrase emerges - the succinct words that describe it so perfectly? 

 

One day recently I was walking around the lake and one of those phrases drifted into my mind. I had been trying to control the process for so long by sitting at the piano and churning out ideas.  But the revelation came when I was at rest, not working for it.  Pretty soon I had a new song.

 

Sometimes I think we don't realize how hard we are really working during Percolation.  The hard work is going on inside.  So finally, when it is time for us to see the results of all this inner labor, it seems effortless, as though an inspiration has just hit us.  The eureka moment, though, doesn't really come out of thin air - it is only the outward sign of the inward grace of Percolation.