The Year of Sustainability

Posted on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 in Holistic Living, Transformation | 1 Comment

With money there is no way to avoid the cold, hard facts.  You must put at least as much dough into the bank as you withdraw, or else you will run out of money.  Maybe your bank will cover some of your overdrafts, but they will charge a hefty fee for their trouble and you’ll be out even more cash. (Don’t ask if I know this from personal experience.)

 

With the rest of life, the facts are easier to avoid – at least initially.  We can overspend our physical and emotional resources for quite awhile. We either ignore or learn to live with the deficit, not considering the hefty fee we will pay sooner or later. It might come in the form of poor health or broken relationships or depression. But it certainly will come if we persist in expending ourselves at an unsustainable level.

 

In case you are wondering, I’m preaching mainly to myself with this little lecture. My life in recent months – probably years if I choose to be honest – has been lived at an unsustainable level of expenditure. Between my part-time job, church planting, graduate school, marriage, and parenting both a teenager and a toddler, not to mention various other commitments, I’ve started to run out of gas. I used to think there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do well if I just put my mind to it.  Lately I feel like there is nothing I can do well, as long as I’m trying to do it all at once. My internal emotional banker is calling in the overdraft fees and demanding reconciliation.

 

I’m listening to her.

 

In 2009 my resolutions were almost ridiculous in their simplicity, and for the most part I was able to stick with them year-round.  I learned that even little things are hard to change, but that change is possible when the expectations are achievable, named, and written down.

 

In 2010 I have one major theme – Sustainability.  My resolutions (only 3) are written to serve this one theme. They are achievable, and they will set me in the right direction.

 

I am convinced that I’m not the only one functioning on the brink.  Our modern lives establish un-sustainability as the default setting at every level – personally, monetarily, ecologically, individually, nationally, and globally.  Too many of us are walking around tired, haggard, demoralized by undone responsibilities and a sense of always being a beat behind the idealized drum.  We’re overwhelmed. When the feeling gets too heavy, we medicate ourselves with one of the many tonics our culture offers us in exchange for our health and well-being. The distraction helps for awhile, but fails to replenish our souls adequately for the journey.

 

Sustainability means that I will not overextend my personal resources. It means that I will replenish at least as much as I expend of my physical and emotional energy.   It might mean choosing to fail at some things in order to succeed at others. It might mean disappointing others’ expectations. It means that I will set a pace of life that I can maintain.

 

What about you? Do you struggle with sustainability like I do? Or have you learned how to live a balanced, replenished life? What helps you on the quest for sustainability? 

 

 

 

What Others Have Said...

  1. Alise 03/9/10 12:23 PM |

    I go back and forth between getting and missing this message. Right now things are a little less sustainable than they are in other seasons. Because of this, I’m looking for places where I can cut back, but there’s a lot that’s “necessary” right now. So instead, I have to really be intentional with my free time. I can easily be a massive time waster, but at a time when life is pulling in a lot of directions, I really don’t have that luxury. So busyness sometimes is a bit of a blessing to me, in that it forces me to prioritize my goals a bit.

    Sorry for not checking in sooner — I love to read what you have to say!

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