This post from the Simple Mom blog yesterday really resonated with me. The author resolved to spend more time just living in the moment, or “being.” She fully committed to that change in her outlook. She restructured parts of her life to suit the change. She simplified, pared down, cleared away. And then she had to laugh at herself, because she realized that committing to “being” had just inspired a whole lot of “doing.”

I had to laugh too, because this is exactly who I am: big goals, big dreams, always searching for the peace and quiet of “creative space”- and willing to accomplish huge to-do lists to make it all happen. This morning in the shower I decided I’d been spending too much time with distractions. I wanted to make more time to spend with my thoughts so that I could focus on my writing and decide where I want to go with it. I decided that during my evening walks with Edwin, I would stop listening to Harry Potter audiobooks and just walk. Listen to the sounds of nature. Tune in to the thoughts in my head. Just be.

Then I worried that it might be hard to go through an entire walk just listening to nature and my own thoughts. I thought, “It would be okay if I listened to music.” So I decided to make some new playlists for walking. I started figuring out when I’d have time to do that today. And then, right there in the shower, I had to laugh. I had just done what the Simple Mom author had done. I had turned “being” into “doing.” I would have spent hours on those playlists, and completely lost the point of why I was making them- to spend time without distractions.

Do you do this, too? Do you let all the “doing” distract you from “being”- even when “being” is your ultimate goal?