Being vs Doing

photo courtesy of Stacey

Sitting here, a Sunday afternoon, Ethan asleep,  older two taken swimming by loving husband.

To "be" or to "do"? Always SO much to do, isn't there? Sometimes I feel I will sink under all the "doing" to be done. So often I forget the being part is as worthy of attention.

This I know; when I fill my days with only doing, and neglect moments for just being, being alone, being quiet, being still, being together in full attention, I can begin to feel like a scarecrow of the most ragged kind, stuffing spilling out, posture slumped, my household suffers, it does not sing, but scrapes. For as mothers, we are keepers of the spirit of the house too, are we not? As within, so without. It is a matter of making, stealing (!) the time, because let's be honest, it defies finding!

One magic discovery is that certain tasks, of the soul enriching kind, incorporate both, that by doing them I am lifted to a better place of being.
Amoung my list: creating of all kinds; crafting, painting, cooking (soup and baking of particlar note), writing, reading, gardening, talking/spending time with a loved one,  exercise (preferably of the early morning variety when world is under its secret spell) to name a few.  

Another, that when returning to the realm of the all the "doing" I feel expanded, settled to stillness by the "being" that the frenzy and steam falls out of it and a task as simple as washing the dishes is elevated to  an higher realm. By "be"stilling, I have so much more to give. All those little incessant questions/requests from my lovely 3, can be lovingly met, rather than heard/felt as a chorus of pecking birds to the head.
To conclude, for there to be a sense of "being" in the "doing" one must take time out to just BE. Maybe, just maybe, with more cultivation  the boundaries between "being" and "doing" cease?