Where we accomplish everything

We're a society obsessed with time-saving devices. Microwaves cut cooking times from hours into seconds. Instant and frozen foods allow us to put a three-course meal on the table in less than 15 minutes.

Cell phones put us in touch with family and friends in seconds no matter where we are. We can pick up our cells and, while waiting at red lights, make an appointment with the dentist, call our kids or chat with a friend from out of state.

There are so many devices that save us time, we should be gliding along in auto pilot most of the time.

Then why do we always seem to be cruising through life in the fast lane, gripping the steering wheel, the gas pedal pushed all the way to the floor?

Because in our quest to hurry up and accomplish our to-do list, we've lost the ability to sit back and take it easy. There's too many things to do and not enough time to do them.

Relaxation is a word many of us only know from seeing the concept on advertisements. We seldom live that state of mind, despite all of society's inventions and catch phrases designed to give us more free time.

We multi-task to take care of all the items on our long "to-do" list. We listen to a podcast of a radio show while cleaning the kitchen. We fold clothes while watching a TiVo'd television show because we're too impatient to sit through the 30-second commercials.

Going to the market was once an activity where people not only shopped for dinner, but neighbors took time to catch up on each others' lives.

Now, most people talk on their hands-free cell phones while dashing up and down the grocery store aisles, their iPhones or Blackberries beeping off a grocery list. There's no time to chat with friends in the store -- we're preoccupied doing two things at one time.

Sunday afternoons, once a sacred time for visiting with family, watching a football game on television or taking a nap on the couch, are now precious slices of time when we catch up on the laundry, pay bills, clean the house or run errands we're too busy to do during the week.

In our quest to create more time for ourselves, the only thing we've made more time for is more work.

After falling into bed last Saturday night, exhausted yet knowing I had a long list of to-do items for Sunday afternoon, I found myself thinking of an episode from "The Andy Griffith Show." Entitled "Man in a Hurry," a businessman, Malcolm Tucker, comes through Mayberry on a Sunday afternoon and has car trouble.

No one's available to repair his car, and Tucker is furious, wondering why the people in this hick town won't repair his car on a Sunday afternoon. He belittles everyone because he believes his time is more important than relaxing.

But after seeing how the people of Mayberry protect and savor their unhurried Sunday afternoon, Tucker comes to realize that enjoying quiet time in a front-porch rocking chair, surrounded by friends and the Sunday newspaper, can be the best use of time.

Leisure time allows us to do what's really important -- spend time with our loved ones and, most importantly, spend time with ourselves doing absolutely nothing.

Because, sometimes doing nothing is when we accomplish everything.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.