Right in the centre - There’s only so much you can do

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Published on Friday, July 15, 2016

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Everyday life seems to take up a person’s whole day. When worries and troubles hit, everyday life can take up half your night as well. When the summer heat hits and getting a good sleep is made a bit more difficult by an overheated house, everyday life can become overwhelming. Fortunately, we almost always come to the conclusion that there is only so much a person can do.

There’s only 24 hours in the day and you only have so much time to do all your work. The gardens get weedy, the car gets dirty, the paperwork can pile up. The crop spraying and hay cutting gets delayed. Production falls behind. What to do, what to do? Sometimes, it’s a matter of what to do first.

There is in fact only so much a person can do. Some seem to have huge capacities, others not so much. It can depend on circumstances, age, money, attitude, a lot of things. But the fact remains, we all, at the end of a day, must realize there’s only so much you can do. We need to always look for better ways to do our work, live our lives, tend to our families, whatever. However, we need to follow the advice of an old friend who once told me at the end of a long farm work day: “It’s time to quit, save some work for tomorrow. If tomorrow never comes, it doesn’t matter anyway.” Great wisdom in those words. There is only one thing worse than having too much to do and that’s having nothing to do.

Actually, in Canada, most of us can be very thankful for where we live, what we have, what we have to do and the opportunities that await us. I have listened over the years to hundreds of people, sometimes they are very distraught. I get it. Sometimes they have good reason to be distraught, a spouse is dying or they are dying. They may be going broke or suffering great pain. I get it. It’s at those times that there is nothing they or maybe anyone else can do except listen and pray. Give it over to God as He is the one who can carry the burden. We don’t have to understand how, or even why, all we need to do is leave the pain and the suffering with God. Easily said, sometimes not so easily done.

Aside from those true trauma events that cause such deep distress and pain, there are many other things that simply shouldn’t trouble us as much as we let them. Like really, the garden is weedy. So? Go and weed a little bit or walk away and don’t look at it. The pile of papers on your desk is too high. Set aside a few minutes some morning and make sure you have a black marker, some files and the recycling bin handy. There are really only two piles for paper, the filing box or the blue bin.

I had to laugh the other day. The RCMP “rescued” a skunk that had a cup or something on it’s head. Really! We risked two officers getting bit, possibly contracting rabies, or sprayed by a skunk to save the life of a skunk. Are we nuts. Like shoot the skunk. Hit it with a rock or a shovel already. It’s a skunk and in that situation, it’s a threat to the officers or anyone else it comes in contact with. Wow, I am going to catch a lot of criticism over that statement, but really, a skunk. I am not one that thinks that every varmint needs to be shot. If it’s out in the woods and doing no harm to man or domestic animals, let it run away. Wish it well. But really, to put people in danger to rescue a skunk?

I tell that little story to bring perspective that we fuss over some really stupid stuff and we really need to get real. If you are having trouble, consider this. Somewhere in Africa today, there is a young, starving mother. Her baby is sobbing as she has so little milk, her toddler is crying as he is also hungry. It’s hot and sultry and they have to somehow walk a few more miles to her mother-in-law’s hut in the hope that there will be some food there. Now, compared to her problems, you don’t have much to worry about.

Yes, there’s only so much you can do, so make a decision. Do something, or maybe do nothing and just take a rest. One way or another, it will all work out.