The Season for Polishing

I had dinner with a dear friend last night whom I hadn't seen in a long while. WHen she arrived to the restaurant, she was carrying a bag with items she had purchased on a little shopping trip. The bag contained leather cleaner, silver cleaner (for jewelry) and shoe polish. "Time to take care of some things that have been neglected for awhile," she said with a smile.

Her life has been busy and rich for the past many months, and as a result, certain things fell off her plate. It happens to all of us in the dance of life. We must sometimes make trade offs and postpone activities that aren't essential. We prioritize our tasks, and tend to the things that absolutely must be handled.

Then, comes the season where things finally slow down a bit, and we can turn our attention towards the tasks that slipped off of our radar screen.

It feels wonderful to get caught up on those types of tasks. Life feels more 'in order' when we finally bring everything up to where it should be.

It's also important to allow ourselves those seasons of tending what we've ignored or neglected for a while. This is how we restore balance. We can seek to be in balance each and every day, but for most of us, that is not realistic. The most important thing is to monitor ourselves, see where we are out of balance and seek to correct it over time.

I once heard a speaker talking about this in relationship to eating. She was advocating that we try to look at a group of 2 or 3 days, and shoot for eating a healthy, diverse and balanced diet over the course of a few days. Although it is good to eat that way every day, for some of us, it just isn't possible. We only get into trouble when the imbalances persist, and we neglect the same area (or food group/nutrient in this case) over the long haul.

I loved the image of my friend conditioning her leather, polishing up her jewelry and shining up her shoes. It was a great message to me that some things get a little dull and 'used' in their appearance when we are fully utilizing them in the living of our life. Then comes the season for polishing... and we spruce them up and restore them to their full glory.

Have any imbalances to correct in your life? Got any dull shoes or jewelry? Maybe its time to declare a season for polishing!