Measuring My Life Out With Coffee Spoons – Or At Least Trying To

We find things all around the world. Sometimes we must travel to the far side of the world to find something that is, in fact, everywhere. Our unseeing eyes flit over them until they glint in the light and are finally seen. Perhaps they weren’t there before. Or maybe we didn’t have the eyes with which to see them.

While in New Zealand, Holly was reading a book about the Maori people. It included many accounts of how the Europeans first described them, in so many contradictory ways. One of the interesting suggestions was that they were lazy. It’s an interesting idea, isn’t it? That a whole people could be uniformly lazy. They also describe them as aggressive. Now there’s an image for you, a lazy aggressive person. How terrifying.

But when a European described a Maori as lazy, or more broadly, when one person describes another person as lazy, they’re sitting inside their own framework of standards and expectations. And I think what that person means is that by their standards, this other person is not doing enough stuff—is not accomplishing enough things.

But what does that really mean? How much stuff do we have to do? How much do we have to accomplish? We all have very different potentials, but even within those constraints, I think there is a very legitimate question of what each of us can and should do with each twenty-four-hour period given to us.

Does not being lazy mean being productive? How do you measure productivity? The number of widgets made? Or hours worked? Or success attained? Many have defined success and achievement as the acquisition of material goods. They are also a certain number of millionaires found lifeless in their own swimming pools every year.

We live in a society that praises productivity and industry and condemns laziness and sloth. This is also the society that invented multi-tasking and ADHD. We pay lip service to work/life balance and the virtues of being present-focused but do we believe in them?

There are others who are trying to save the world, to create art, or better themselves. But what if, just for today, we are the part of the world that we should be saving? What if we are our own masterpiece, at least for today? What if, in some ways, we are already perfect?

Then how do we spend today? Work another job, earn another dollar? Create another masterpiece that isn’t ourselves? In another way, reinforce to ourselves that we are somehow lacking; that we are not worthy?

Or can we, just today, sit and enjoy our coffee? Can we measure today, or maybe even this week, with coffee spoons? Can we sit and relax and be at peace with ourselves and those around us? Can we look up from our phones and see the people around us? Can we see that in some small way, this world here today is perfect? Or at least that we and those with us are worthy and valid, if not perfect?

I’m not the only one, am I?

Or am I the only person who thinks that they need permission to relax and enjoy today? You can’t turn on the internet without seeing a thousand messages about how imperfect your life is and a thousand more trying to sell you a product to solve all of your many inadequacies. Surely, I’m not the only one wondering whether or not I’m doing this ‘life’ thing correctly.

But today, I give myself permission to enjoy my coffee. Today, I will see the world around me and not think of the thousand improvements and projects it represents. Today I will sit quietly with my inadequacies and not try to mend them.

Today, I will sip my coffee.

Questions

Please comment below…

• Are you obsessed with productivity? Or are you lazy? Or have you found the perfect balance?
• What is your favorite kind of coffee? Or do you prefer tea?