(v.) to promote growth by labor and attention

Less than a month out from the DC exodus, the reality of “limited time” is hitting more than ever.  Why is it that we never feel like there’s enough time?

I read that the Chilean earthquake this last spring was so powerful that it shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the length of a day by 1.26 millionths of a second. (True story.) No wonder I’m feeling so frantic these days. I’ve been robbed of precious milliseconds by the earthquake.

But really. Time is short and my list of Thailand to-dos seems to be growing rather than shriking. You know, small things like getting plane tickets and a visa. Finding health insurance and changing addresses (when you don’t really have a new address yet.) Road trip planning. Purging, packing and storing. And now adding car repairs to the list after sacrificing a car window and an ipod to the DC “you can’t POSSIBLY leave here without being vandalized during your DC tenure” police. The last couple weeks of the job and keeping up with schoolwork still have to fit in there somewhere too.

Oh yes. And so do PEOPLE.

Admittedly, my list of to-dos is piling up in favor of savoring every last drop of the people — the extraordinary community — that I have here in DC. Be that Saturday morning waffles at Buzz, kayaking on the Potomac, hitting three bbqs in a weekend, coffee dates with my youth group girls or a super-short weekend getaway to backcountry camp at Assateague, these are the important things in life.  And they’re important not just because they’re fun adventures. They’re important because they involve PEOPLE and RELATIONSHIP.

Don’t be fooled – this is not my excuse for procrastination.  It’s a reflection of a major life change last fall that taught me that people are more important than things. Or to-dos.  So I’m determined to live out that lesson well in my last weeks in DC.  And I’ll pray hard that God will multiply my time to allow the rest to fall in place.  In time.

If you knew you only had three weeks left in DC, how would you spend your time?  In WHOM do you need to invest time this week?