This year, after dealing with my daughter’s graduation, two different traffic accidents (our car was hit by another last Monday, and a couple weeks before that my wife was hit by a car while cycling), and myriad other things, all I wanted for Father’s Day was to not have to do anything. Fortunately, I got my wish, and it’s been very restorative. Since the second accident I’ve been wondering if I didn’t have a mild concussion, and I now suspect that the busyness of the week was making me dizzy.

Which brought to mind this line from Christopher Jamison’s Finding Sanctuary:

The temptation to busy-ness is not a new one…. The fathers and motors of the desert knew better than we do how being busy producing and consuming can be a substitute for facing the deeper realities of life. (Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, 20-21)

Actually his whole discussion of busyness, its origins, and our ability to step away from it– once we realize that we have the ability to choose to do so– is well worth reading.