Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Time is Better Spent “Earning” Happiness rather than Additional Money

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What I read yesterday as I wrote a post on the Prophet Habakkuk:

Has not the Lord Almighty determined
that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire,
that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. Hab 2 13-14
What I thought yesterday:
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” John 6:27
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.Isaiah 55: 2
What I am reading today: Slow by Carl Honore.
* * *
 My husband and I own a small publishing company which provides our family enough to live on!
But, you know, there is a mortgage, and we have two children. And so we keep wondering if we should expand our business. The law of empires—expand or contract—is the same for businesses: expand your market share, or lose it and contract. So, against our better judgement, we have in fact been slowly expanding the company, in the last 3.5 years since we realised that we had enough to be happy.
We have now caught up with much of our backlog of procrastinated chores built up over a couple of decades of privileging work, and procrastinating everything else. So we were wondering if Roy should throw himself into expanding our business.
* * *
I am reading Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project. So thinking about what will make me happier has now begun to enter the equation.
Money can increase happiness up to a point, because it can help you cope with some of life’s problems, so that you are less sad and stressed. However, after your income reached a certain level, more money will not make you happier, according to Nobel prize winning economists Deaton and Kahneman at Princeton.
For me, because I don’t have any particular material thing I’m hankering for, a 10% or even a 50 % percent increase in income will not probably not make me particularly happier, I realized.
What will make me happier is
* To be able to keep up with my 1.5 acre garden, which I am afraid is looking rather shaggy and unkempt with all the rain we’ve had.
* To be have a tidy, organized and decluttered house.
* To eat healthy, body-blessing “Slow Food,” homecooked meals, homemade bread, and homemade stuff like Roy’s delicious salad dressings and dips!
* To exercise everyday.
* To have more time to read.
* More time to write.
* * *
So yet again, we are again putting off the decision to expand the business so as to spend more time in the garden, and kitchen, and in creating domestic order and serenity!!
You know, I think it makes sense. Time spent making extra money is not as well spent as “free time” spent on things which bring you bliss.
People are realizing that time is more important than money.  Money is a renewable resource – there are always ways to get more of it.  But time is a limited resource.
You only have a certain allotment of time in your life.  When it’s used up…that’s it!  YOUR TIME IS YOUR LIFE.  When you give someone your money, you’ve given them something that you can replace.  But when you give someone your time, you’ve given them a part of your life.  This means “time management” is really “life management.”
A question to consider as you work this week:  “How much of what I’m doing right now is going to count ten years from now…50 years from now.. or for eternity?”
You have just enough time to fulfill God’s purpose for your life.  If you “can’t get it all done” it means (1) You’re doing things God never intended for you to do, or (2) You’re doing the right thing in the wrong way.
                                             * * *
Time is always more precious than money, because money spent can be earned again, and money earned can be used to buy time (by farming out whatever work can be farmed out, cleaning, housekeeping chores, gardening, business admin.) Time, however, is an irreplaceable, non-renewable resource.
As Michael Hyatt wrote recently: Your time is a zero sum game.  You must say no to good things—worthy things—in order to say yes to your most important priorities.
                                          * * *
To celebrate life together, to be together in community, to simply enjoy the beauty of creation, the love of people, and the goodness of God—these seem faraway ideals. There seem to be a mountain of obstacles preventing people from being where their hearts want to be. It is so painful to watch and experience. The astonishing thing is that the battle for survival has become so “normal” that few people really believe it can be different.” Henri Nouwen, Seeds of Hope
So for a season, a few months, or years, or the rest of the my life, I am going to say No to working additional hours for more money in exchange for more happiness—happiness in my garden, in an orderly house, with more time to read, to write, to exercise, to pray, to read Scripture, to eat slow, home-cooked food, and to cook for and eat with friends and family!!

Sundays, Poustinia, and Rest

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Several, several years ago, Roy and I went on a retreat in a “poustinia,” a concept popularized by Catherine Doherty. We were given a cabin in the snowy woods in Minnesota, and meals were brought to us in a basket. The center was called “Pacem in Terris.” Peace on Earth. Indeed!

One of the things I remember is that we were told that until one went away to rest, one did not realize how tired one was. That when one goes away on retreat, whether to pray or to write, the first thing one does is sleep–a lot.

I find that with Sundays. Though I do not feel particularly tired during the week, because I find my work–writing!–very stimulating, there comes a time each day,between 11 and midnight, when my brain feels as if it has turned to mush.

But on Sundays, the accumulated tiredness of the week shows up, probably because adrenalin is low since I don’t intend to write. I nap and nap and nap, and read and nap.

What a gift they are, imagine, one day out of 7 set apart for rest!!