If you’re like me, you’ve probably noticed something.
The Fourth of July comes and goes, the school supplies appear in the stores, and before you know it, people are talking about back-to-school shopping, football season, and pumpkin spice everything.
Hold on a minute.
It’s only the beginning of August.
Summer isn’t over yet.
There’s still plenty of time for one more cookout, one more day at the beach, or at least one more excuse to put off raking leaves.
We have a tendency to rush through life, always looking ahead to what’s next instead of enjoying where we are. We hurry through one season only to find ourselves anxious about the next. Before long, we realize we’ve missed the very moments we were looking forward to.
If the retailers have their way, Christmas will be here by Labor Day. I’m not buying it.
Years ago, when I was traveling the country presenting seminars to bankers, teachers, nurses, and business leaders, one of my favorite presentations was called Taking Care of You. I also had the privilege of presenting it as part of the customer service training for more than 18,000 employees at Foxwoods during the resort’s early years of growth.
One of the ideas I borrowed from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was a concept he called “Sharpening the Saw.” It became one of the cornerstones of my presentation because people immediately understood the lesson. Covey uses the image of a woodcutter who keeps sawing with a dull blade because he’s convinced he doesn’t have time to stop and sharpen it.
The irony, of course, is that stopping for a few minutes would actually make the job easier.
At the time, I was teaching people how to become more effective in the workplace. Today, I see that lesson through a different lens. Funny thing is, the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized that I probably needed that reminder as much as anyone sitting in those audiences.
Life has a way of filling every available minute. Between work, family, parish activities, volunteer commitments and the constant buzz of our phones, it’s easy to keep moving without ever slowing down.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons I enjoy summer so much.
Not just vacations or cookouts or kayaking on the lake, but permission to slow down. To spend time with family. To laugh a little more. To take a walk. To read a good book. To sit quietly before the Blessed Sacrament. To remember that our value isn’t measured by how many things we check off a to-do list.
Long before Stephen Covey ever wrote about sharpening the saw, God had already built that principle into creation. He gave us a Sabbath. He gave us seasons. He knew we’d need both.
So don’t rush summer away.
There’s still time for another picnic, another sunset, another visit with friends, another evening on the porch, another chapter in that book you’ve been meaning to read, another quiet hour with the Lord.
The calendars will soon fill up again.
But not today.
Today, summer is still here.
So take a deep breath… and, if you’ll pardon the expression, take a few minutes to sharpen your saw.
