Short Story

She had a lot planned for that week. She volunteers three times a week at a charity organization, organizing the shop and serving people. She also spends one day a week doing the paperwork for the organization. On her spare day, she does the accounting paperwork for her husband’s business. She also does an hour or two of cricket paperwork each week in the cricket season. But this particular week, she also had an appointment, and an after school engagement as well.

 

If she sticks to her regime, she’d accomplish it all. She feels she needs a system otherwise she gets a bit overwhelmed. She’s even got someone who can look after her boys if they get sick. She feels she’s got it all organised.

 

That is, until Tuesday morning. One of her sons comes down with the chicken pox. Upon ringing the lady who looks after her boys at times, she finds out that she is going overseas the following week and didn’t want any chance of catching anything more serious than a common cold.

 

After exhausting another avenue of child minding, she resigns herself to the fact that she would have to pull out of all her commitments for that week. 

 

As she spends each day at home with her son, she realizes that they discuss things that they’ve never discussed before. He shares more things about school, his friends at school, and other things in general. They watch a couple of DVDs; they even do some crosswords together.

 

It’s during this week that she starts to realize how task orientated she’s become. Her focus has shifted from spending quiet time together with others – family, friends, people she meets at the store, to getting things done – meeting that check-list in her mind. She’s realizing that she’s seeing the tasks, rather than the people themselves.

 

When was the last time she had reached out, to hold one of her son’s hands at home, rather than to trim their fingernails? 

 

How many times lately, was her mind focused elsewhere, when interacting with those who had come into the shop? How many people had she missed of those who had come in, looking for someone to talk to, rather than something to buy?

 

She tries to remember the last time she just sat and had a cup of tea and a chat with her husband. She’s forgone one or two of her son’s cricket games lately, so that she could catch up on other things. She even admits, to herself, that even story time had become task focused. 

 

She starts to enjoy her time at the dinner table, not having to rush preparing dinner or getting through dinnertime so that she can move on to the next thing. Meals haven’t had a lot of thought put into them lately. Friday night they even had time for a board game. It had been a long time since the last one.

 

By the weekend she’s wondering, just who, are the needy, in her life. 

 

Had, the cause, that she embarked on all those years ago, jumped into the driver’s seat, speeding past all the ‘go slow’, ‘give way’, ‘50km around the bend’, and even ‘stop’ signs?

 

Had she become so task focused, that she had, somewhat, lost the joy and the strength that comes from spending time with others?

 

Through task coloured glasses, had she started to see, ‘seen’ organization, as more valuable, than ‘unseen’ communion?